Stargate: The Second Great Alliance
by Seraphin2011
Summary: With the Second Great Alliance finally being formed, the Guardians, the Terrans, the Asgard and the Nox are set out to bring everlasting peace and prosperity to the region of space they inhabit. A task not easy to accomplish when faced by so many, old and new, enemies constantly trying to destroy them with every means at their disposal.
1. Peace NEverlasting Part One

**Author's note: **Hi all. Here begins the second book, the sequel to _Stargate: The Guardian's Order_. So, if you stumbled onto this story and didn't read the first one, you should go and read that one first before proceeding any further. As promised, the book is out at the end of summer and chapters will be published every week until it is complete.

The book turned out a lot more complex than what I anticipated and because of it, it's written as a continuous story rather than separate chapters like the first book. I hope you won't mind the story jumping around between six galaxies. I tried to minimize the number of irrelevant characters ans stick to the one we already know and love, but with so many galaxies... well, it is not easy.

Also, I used a stardate system similar to the one used in Star Trek. This way I'm hoping you'll be able to track the passage of time a little better. If you don't want to use a Star Trek date calculator, just keep in mind that stardate zero is the date when The Second Great Alliance was formed _(January 1st 2008)_, and that a thousand means a year.

I would also like to thank chain reader for helping me with my writing so that you don't have to navigate through the many grammar errors I usually make.

Also, the chapter's name should be Peace (N)Everlasting (Part One), but somehow I think the site won't let me keep the brackets.

Thanks for reading and I hope you'll enjoy the story.

* * *

**Furling Galaxy - Unknown Location  
**_Stardate: 1836.0 November 1st 2009_

Soren looked from the window of the control room located inside the tallest building of the marvelous flying city, the one that had been built by the Asurans. He was remembering the day, more than six months ago, when Liam came to him with a proposition. Since the Pegasus galaxy was for the most part at peace, Liam wanted him to take the Asuran city and go in search for the Furlings or whatever they left behind. A ship had returned from the Senari galaxy with clues where the Furlings had gone and Liam believed he would be the perfect candidate for such a long mission of exploration. He was pleased to see that Liam was placing so much trust in him, and he was excited at the prospect of a long term mission, especially since his current job had become pretty boring and uneventful. But there were a few problems though that he didn't like very much.

Apparently, the Furlings had traveled almost forty million light years to another galaxy from a galaxy that was already far away. It meant support from home would be impossible in any meaningful time. The plan was to send the flying city to the long journey with whatever it could take, but he knew it wouldn't be much. The city could house two ships on two piers and one ship-builder on the third pier while the rest would be for as much raw material as possible, and that definitely wasn't a lot to start a new colony, surely not for one that needed to sustain itself indefinitely without any additional support. This was a problem, but the _other_ thing Liam wanted from him, troubled Soren even more.

When Liam had offered him the new job, he was also planning to change him. He would be the first Edenian to be turned into an Alterran, something Liam had apparently been planning to do for quite some time. Even with all the assurances of the procedure being safe and that there would be no problems or side effects whatsoever, Soren still felt uncomfortable. After all, he would become somebody else entirely and he liked who he was. The main reason why Liam wanted to change him was because he would need the Repository of Knowledge downloaded into his brain and only an Alterran could survive the download.

Another reason for the change was because of the Furlings. Liam knew the Furlings left clues on purpose so they could be found, but Liam was also certain they would never leave anything important without taking some precautions. They would most certainly have placed security measures to make sure only an Alterran, Asgard or Nox could access whatever they had left behind.

Reluctantly, Soren had agreed with the terms and his transformation began, and only a month later, he was a fully-fledged Alterran with their entire knowledge in his head. In the meantime, the city had been filled with whatever they thought would help them on their mission and more than fifty thousand Edenians were selected to participate from the large number of volunteers that were excited at the idea of such mission. And with the crew selected and everything loaded into the city, they were finally ready to begin their mission.

It had taken almost three months of travel in order to reach the galaxy where they thought the Furlings had gone, first through two anomalies to reach the galaxy where they found clues and then by traveling through hyperspace for the forty million light years long journey before finally settling down on a planet near the outer rim of what they began to call the Furlings galaxy.

And now, Soren was looking outside the window into the vast ocean the city was floating on, on the planet they'd named Cydonia. A planet located more than 190 million light-years from his home planet Eden Prime. It was exhilarating and frightening at the same time, mostly because there was no easy way of contacting home. Even with all three ZPMs, the stargate could not be used to connect such distances. It meant they were alone.

Soren turned to face the other people in the conference room. They were all waiting for him to finally sit down so they could start their first official meeting since they'd arrived in this galaxy.

"Alright, let's begin. Nolan, what have our ships found out about this galaxy," Soren asked, while looking straight at Nolan.

Nolan cleared his throat before beginning, "Nothing good I'm afraid. Our two cruisers were unable to find any precious metals in this galaxy, the same as on this planet. It appears this galaxy doesn't have Naquadah, Neutronium or Trinium in any quantities we can use."

"That's not good. Most of our technology relies heavily on these materials," Soren replied more to himself than to the others.

"Yes, and without Naquadah we can't build reactors for our ships or the installations we were planning to build on the mainland. And the reserves we brought with us won't last forever."

"No, we cannot use those reserves to build new ships or anything else we were planning to build on the mainland. If we can't replace our resources, we have to keep them for when something in the city or on one of our three ships breaks, so we can replace it," Soren explained.

"But how can we build a completely new infrastructure on this planet if we can't use these materials?"

"Well, we don't know for how long we will have to stay here, but we don't have to build things that last for millions of years as it was usual for everything the Alterran ever built. We can use what is available to us in this galaxy," Soren explained. It was true the Alterran always built things to last.

"And what are we going to use for energy generation? There is no reactor that we know of that can generate as much energy as a Naquadah reactor or a Neutrino-Ion generator, and both of them use materials that are not available to us here."

"Then we will make fusion reactors that only need Deuterium and Helium 3 to work. They won't be able to generate the same amount of energy as the Naquadah reactors we are accustomed to, but it will have to suffice."

"What about ships we need to build? Can a fusion reactor give enough energy to feed a hyperdrive?"

"Probably not, but millions of years ago the Alterran used other types of FTL drives that needed much less power than a hyperdrive. Of course, they are much slower, but I think we have no choice here," Soren replied.

"Well, apparently the Alterran are not the only ones who know how to build other types of FTL drives," Nolan said, thinking about something.

"What do you mean?"

"One of our cruisers spotted an unknown vessel. Our ship cloaked immediately in order to avoid detection and under its cloak it was able to scan the alien vessel. They somehow must have detected the scan because they left soon after. The strange part was that the ship didn't open a hyperspace window, but instead it used some other type of FTL travel. Our ship was able to monitor the ship traveling faster than light, though it looked as if it was still traveling through our space-time, just slightly edging towards subspace," Nolan explained.

"From how you described it, it looks like the same type of FTL drive the Alterrans used a long time ago," Soren added, glad he had the Repository of Knowledge downloaded into his brain.

"So, we are going to build our infrastructure on the planet and our new ships practically the same way the Alterran did in the past?" Nolan asked.

"In part, yes. We will have to completely redesign the ships we were planning to build. On the other hand, building these ships will go much faster with our current technology."

The others agreed. Even one positive side to the lack of precious metals was better than nothing.

The meeting had continued for several more hours, in which time they had discussed how they were going to build their new home on the planet's mainland where, once finished, most of the Edenians would be relocated. There was no point for them to stay in the city and they still needed to make their production facilities on the mainland anyway. The city also didn't have the space needed to produce food or anything else the Edenians were going to need to survive in this new galaxy. One thing was certain though. The lack of precious materials in this entire galaxy was inevitably going to change their timetable. They needed to build a fleet that could canvas an entire galaxy and since they wouldn't be able to use hyperdrives, except for the three ships they already had, the canvasing was going to take much longer than anticipated. Soren's only hope was that what the Furlings had left on this planet would eventually give them something they could use to limit the search area for whatever the Furlings had left for them to find. By now, Soren was more than certain the Furlings were not here, and that meant they must have left other clues somewhere in this galaxy.

Another positive side that Soren could think of was that the cruiser that crossed paths with the alien vessel had been able to access their computer core and download their data. From what they were able to decipher so far, there were many races in this galaxy capable of space travel and Soren got the idea of trying to befriend some of them. In a way, those races knew more about this galaxy than they did and they could prove to be an invaluable source of information, helping them in their quest to find the Furlings or whatever the Furlings had left behind. Soren was already thinking how the initial two years, the time he and Liam had thought it would take them to find the Furlings would probably not be enough. Thankfully, the massive ship-builder Liam had given them was able to speed up construction of their new home considerably, because if not, Soren thought it would probably take them decades to accomplish anything.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Earth  
**_Stardate: 1845.0_

Jack had been walking through the large corridors of the main building for a while now. He was waiting for another in the never-ending chain of meetings to start and he didn't want to spend that time in his office. His assistant, Walter, was relentless when it comes to filling up paperwork and he was always lurking around, trying to catch him and drag him to his office. It was amazing how Walter always knew where he was, so much that Jack started to believe the man had placed a tracking device on him.

As Jack turned another corner, he almost bumped into Daniel who was running somewhere, always busy doing something Jack didn't care for or liked at all.

"Jack, where are you going?" Daniel asked.

"Nowhere, just buzzing around and waiting for the meeting to start," Jack replied.

"Trying to hide from Walter, huh?" Daniel replied knowingly.

"No-no, why would I hide from Walter?"

"Paperwork comes to mind. Since you just returned from your two weeks' vacation, I imagine you have a lot of the stuff waiting in your office."

"I wouldn't know Daniel. I still didn't visit my office today," Jack replied.

"Jack, it's three o'clock. How have you managed to stay out of your office for the entire day?" Daniel said, but then he remembered how Jack didn't know he even had an office for the eight years while he was a Colonel in the SGC. "Never mind, dumb question."

They continued their walk towards the large conference room where the meeting was scheduled to take place until Jack decided it would be a good thing to know what the meeting was all about, "So, what is this meeting for again?"

"Again? So, you are saying that, at one point, you knew what the meeting was for, but you've just forgot?" Daniel asked knowing full well Jack never knew what the reason for them to meet today was.

"Daniel."

"Yes?"

"Nobody likes a smartass."

"Fine. We have to talk about a lot of things that happened in the last year and a half since we won the battle against the Ori, especially about the Aschen involvement in the war against them," Daniel explained the main topic of the meeting.

Jack's face took a sour expression the moment Daniel mentioned the Aschen, no matter what the context was, "Alright, what else?"

"Well, we have to talk about the Wraith, the Jaffa and the current situation Earth is in regarding the Chinese."

Jack thought about the trouble they were having with the Chinese. Almost two years ago, the Chinese had come to the President of the United States with a peculiar request. At the time, the situation had become precarious on Earth. Jack knew Earth was on the brink of war with the Chinese and the North Koreans on one side, and the countries in the Terran Alliance on the other. Jack thought there were only two possible solutions to the problem. The first was war and the second was China finally joining the Terran Alliance. Instead of either one of these two choices, China came up with a third solution. They wanted to establish a colony on a nearby planet, the same one they'd visited with their single ship, the one they used when they had tried to steal the stargate. They asked the Terran Alliance to help them establish a colony, which would in turn help them enter the colonization era without the need to enter the Terran Alliance. At the beginning, nobody liked the idea of the Chinese having a colony, but they had to admit, it was a better choice than war. And indeed, war was the only other possibility they could see. Reluctantly, the Terran Alliance came to the decision to help the Chinese build a colony only seventeen light years away.

The Terrans had built a much larger ship than what the Chinese had built the first time and they also provided them with whatever they would need to start building the needed infrastructure on the planet. After almost two years, the Chinese colony had grown considerably and they now had even more ships than what the Terrans had believed they would be able to build in such a short time. Now the Chinese were starting to explore the neighboring systems, already thinking of colonizing another planet. If nothing else, you could always say the Chinese know how to build fast.

Their current problem was that the agreement they had signed with the Chinese didn't limit them in how many planets they could colonize. The only limit was them not being allowed to take any planet if the planet in question already had some form of sentient life form on it. The Terran Alliance also thought it would take years for the Chinese to build the necessary infrastructure on the planet and even more years to build more ships and start exploring other worlds for colonization. Instead, the Chinese had other ideas in mind and in less than a year they already had several ships free to explore the galaxy. Their hyperdrive technology was still much weaker than what the Terrans or even the Jaffa had even before the Terrans had helped them in that area, but it was still enough to canvas a thousand light years radius around Earth.

At least discussing the Jaffa would be a much easier topic since the Jaffa had made incredible progress, especially in the last year. After Gerak had inexplicably disappeared, the Jaffa had slowly embraced the Tau'ri as their friends and many had finally understood that what the Tau'ri were trying to teach them on how a modern society should look like, wasn't because they wanted to turn them into peasants or farmers, but because such society simply cannot survive without people working such jobs. The Jaffa had understood how they needed to be more than just warriors and with Bra'tac as their leader they were making incredible steps towards that goal. Now it was time to think about formalizing an alliance between the Terrans and the Jaffa, an alliance that would strengthen their friendship even further.

The Wraith was the third topic Daniel mentioned as one of the more important things they needed to discuss. The Pegasus galaxy had become a peaceful one after the last attack the Wraith had executed on the planet the Guardians were using as a stopping point before transferring humans to the Andromeda galaxy. They must have understood the planet's defenses were more than enough to repel even a many times larger fleet than what they'd used or, as the second possibility, the faction that attacked the planet didn't tell the other factions about the planet at all. The result was the same, with the planet remaining safe to be used without the Wraith attacking it ever since.

To this day, the Guardians and Terrans had managed to transfer almost one fourth of what they thought the total population of humans in the Pegasus galaxy was and the Wraith must have felt the diminishing amount of food available to them, especially since largely populated worlds were now under the protection of the Terrans and the Guardians, while worlds with smaller populations had almost all been relocated. Soon, the number of Wraiths had started to diminish and the Guardians theorized the Wraith had returned into hibernation as the only remaining option to them if they didn't want to starve. Now, they needed to find them and finish them before the inhabitants of the Pegasus galaxy could safely return.

Jack and Daniel had finally reached the chamber where the meeting was to take place. Inside, the other members of the Council were already seated and ready to begin. Jack walked to his seat at the head of the table, nodding to the various members of the Council.

After the usual pleasantries with the other members he hadn't seen in more than two weeks, the meeting finally started.

"So, what is this I'm hearing about the Aschen," Jack said while looking at Klaus.

"A week ago the Aschen sent us a message asking to meet with us. They want to make some kind of alliance," Klaus explained to Jack what had transpired while he was on vacation.

"An alliance? Why do they think we would even consider making an alliance with them?" Jack asked, clearly not liking the idea of an alliance with elements such as the Aschen.

"I don't know. The message said they have changed in the last two years and that they now think of us as equals."

"I somehow doubt they have changed at all," Jack said thinking how it was impossible the Aschen had changed their method operandi so suddenly.

"Nonetheless, we have several reports stating the Aschen have helped in the fight against the Ori by freeing planets from their oppression. They also didn't take those planets into their fold as was their previous M.O.," Dmitri interjected into the conversation.

"I'm not convinced. I think there must be something else at work here. Something we are not seeing," Jack replied.

"I agree. The Aschen changing so much in such a short time, and now asking us to make an alliance with them, there must be more to it," Klaus said, agreeing with Jack. "It also seems strange they would so easily forget what we have done to their planet and just start friendly relations with us."

"What did we do to their planet?" Sam asked not understanding to what Klaus was referring.

"Remember how Liam told us their home planet had a big crater and the only explanation was that they used the address we gave them, the one with the black hole on the other side?" Jack explained what Klaus meant.

"Oh, yeah, I completely forgot about that," Sam replied.

"Well, he's right. No matter how different they are from us, there's no chance they are forgetting something like that. Just like we wouldn't," Jack continued.

"So, what is their reason then for wanting an alliance with us?" Dmitri asked, also thinking there must be something else behind all this.

Daniel thought about it for a moment, "Do we know how and when they acquired hyperspace technology? Or the ability to use the gate network for that matter?"

"It was around the final battle with the Ori when we heard the first rumors of strange flying machines coming through the gates and killing the Ori followers. Around that time, we also detected a probe that came to the Solar system, which we now believe was Aschen in origin. The probe had a hyperdrive very similar to what the Goa'uld use, but with some improvements to their initial design. All this suggests they have acquired some Goa'uld vessel and reverse engineered its hyperdrive, but this doesn't explain how they have gained access to the gate network. Usually the Goa'uld don't keep gate addresses on ships," Klaus explained, knowing the Goa'uld had the ability to easily memorize all known gate addresses and keeping them in the ship's memory would be redundant as well as a security risk.

"So it means two years ago they must have learned about the Ori and what kind of threat they pose. The destruction of the probe they sent to Earth must have also showed them we won't be such an easy obstacle to overcome," Daniel said.

"You think they had to choose who they wanted to fight first, us or the Ori, and they've chosen to fight the Ori knowing they couldn't possibly survive if the Ori defeat us?" Jack added.

"It makes sense doesn't it? They are probably planning to stub us in the back the moment we win against the Ori," Klaus said.

"It's possible, but I still don't understand how they think we will agree to an alliance with them," Daniel said.

"Probably because we think alike. You know what they say. Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies even closer. It is to our own advantage to have more information about the Aschen and an alliance with them would probably give us the access we need," Klaus said.

"You are not really proposing we make an alliance with them?" Jack said. He knew about the need to monitor your enemies, but an alliance with such a race was so unappealing to him that he couldn't think Klaus would ever suggest something like that.

"Why not? It's not like we don't know their real motives. This alliance would be a farce in which both sides know it is a farce," Klaus continued, really believing they should make such an alliance.

Jack was torn between logic, the dislike he felt towards the Aschen and his complete inability to understand anything Klaus was saying. Maybe it really was a good idea to make an alliance with the Aschen, but he was still reluctant to make it even as a charade, "I still don't get it. If they know this alliance would be only to gain intel, and we know they know it would be only for that, and they also know we know they know it is only for show, we are not going to get anything out of it. So what's the point then?"

The other eight members of the Council stood silent for a long time, clueless on what Jack had just told them or better yet what he'd tried to tell them. There had simply been to many 'we know' and 'they know' to be sure.

"You may have a point there," Klaus answered, also receiving strange stares from everybody else, Jack included. "Still, we should at least meet with them and see what exactly they are proposing."

"Ok, who's in favor of meeting with the Aschen raise his hand," Jack said, and waited until all members raised their hands. Apparently, he was the only one thinking this was a waste of time, but diplomacy was something the others liked more than big honking space guns and he too had to oblige with the Council's ruling.

"Fine, we will let the Aschen know we are open to discussion. Let's go on the next topic. I believe we need to discuss the Wraith problem and the Pegasus galaxy in general," Jack said.

Daniel was the one to pick up on that, "While you were on vacation, I've spent a few hours talking with Liam regarding the Pegasus galaxy. The first thing he said was that we need to find the remaining Wraith and get rid of them once and for all."

"And how are we planning to do that? I mean, the Pegasus galaxy may be smaller than the Milky Way and even more compared to the Andromeda galaxy, but still, we are talking about a massive area of space to search through. Is not that easy to canvas it all," Jack asked.

"Well, he gave me this," Daniel said before pushing a button. The main display showed some kind of probe design. "This is a probe that he says is relatively easy to build and it doesn't use any precious materials we wouldn't be so ready to waste on such project. The idea is to build a lot of them and send them to canvas the galaxy on their own while relaying information back to us as it is collected. If the probes find something of interest, we can follow up by sending a ship to investigate. It also doesn't have any tech we wouldn't want to fall into the wrong hands like the Wraith."

Sam was looking at the strange design not understanding one thing, "Wait a minute. Are you telling me such a small probe can house a working hyperdrive?"

Daniel shook his head, "Liam thought you would notice. No, the probe doesn't have a hyperdrive."

"It doesn't? So what use do we have of a probe that can't travel faster than light?" Sam asked again.

"I didn't say it doesn't have an FTL drive. I just said it doesn't have a hyperdrive," Daniel replied, liking the fact he was the one explaining scientific stuff to Sam for once. "The probe uses some other kind of FTL drive. It's smaller and it even needs less power than a hyperdrive, but it cannot achieve the same speed as a hyperdrive. That's why a hyperdrive is the preferred method for traveling the stars."

Jack remembered the time when Liam told him the Alterrans had used other types of FTL drives before researching hyperspace and the possibility to use it as a medium for travel, "Yeah, Liam told me his people knew about other types of FTL drives."

"Yes, and the probes also use a small fusion reactor that needs only deuterium as fuel. The probe can even refuel itself in space if it finds a gaseous region, so we don't have to worry about the probes sucking our reserves of Naquadah or the need to go around the galaxy to refuel them."

Sam was looking intently at the probe's design thinking of all the possible applications such technology could be used for. Having automated ships that don't use any precious materials like Naquadah, Trinium and Neutronium, plus the ability to replenish its fuel reserves whenever needed, could be incredibly useful to them. No matter how many ships they had built, they still had a too small fleet to canvas any larger regions of space. Also the ability to use some other kind of FTL drive no other race in the galaxy uses, was of great interest to her. Theoretically, nobody could intercept such a ship, which meant they could build automated transport ships without having to worry about being intercepted by the Lucian Alliance or some other pirate-like race flying around the galaxy. The shipyards on Earth, Tollana, New Terra and especially those on Asura could cram up such ships with incredible speed. "What kind of speed can this drive achieve?"

Daniel looked at the document Liam gave him, "Oh, let me see. Okay, I found it. If this is correct the drive can achieve a quarter of the speed of a typical Goa'uld Ha'tak for an indefinite amount of time without burning up. They can be pushed faster, but not for long. It also says it needs almost ten times less energy than what a ship of a similar size that uses a hyperdrive would need for traveling at such speeds."

"Ten times less? This is incredible," Sam stated.

"Carter, hold on for a minute," Jack said.

"What? I didn't say anything."

"Yes you did, at least in your head you did," Jack replied, knowing full well what Sam was thinking.

"Well, if you know what I was thinking, then tell me if it's not a good idea," Sam asked.

"Can somebody tell the rest of us who can't read minds, what the hell is going on?" Dmitri said, not understanding anything of what was happening.

"Sam wants to use this type of technology not only to build these damn probes, but also to make new types of ships, like automated transport ships or something like that that are cheap to build. Our shipyards could probably build hundreds of such ships in a year, at least that's if the sparkle in Sam's eyes is any indication."

Sam was a little pissed at Jack, but she was also dumbfounded on how Jack had understood what she wanted to do without saying anything, "Well, think about it. The only negative side of such technology is that it uses slower FTL drives, but there are many benefits that come with it. We have been thinking about building transport ships for a long time, but we are reluctant to make them because we don't want to use the Asgard hyperdrives as a propulsion system or any other advanced system because the ships could be taken by somebody and reverse engineered. It is also too expensive to build Asgard hyperdrives for such a purpose and we always want to build more of our cruisers and battleships instead of transport ships. The end result is that we very often use our warships as transport ships, which is also ridiculous since they were never meant for that. This technology on the other hand gives us the ability to build as many ships as we need, cheap and without having to worry about pirates gaining some technology we don't want them to have. Plus the ships would be virtually impossible to intercept since they use an FTL drive that no other race is using."

"Carter, I'm not saying it's a bad idea. I actually think it is a _good _idea, but now is not the time to discuss this alright," Jack watched as Sam nodded in understanding, but he also had the slight feeling she wouldn't let the matter wait for another meeting, one Jack would want to be at least several days later. "Alright then, let's continue with what we have been discussing so far. As I understand it, Liam wants us to build as many of these probes as we can and then send them in the Pegasus galaxy to try to find planets where the Wraith have gone in hiding, is that the idea?"

"That's right," Daniel replied.

"Okay how much of our resources can we relocate without delaying too many of our other projects?"

Paul thought about it for a while, thinking of all the projects they were currently building, "I think we can reallocate twenty percent of our current small ship's building capacity. In two months we will be able to do more when the other shipyards on Tollana and Terra Nova are completed. I still can't give you an estimate on how many we'll be able to build. We'll need to build a prototype first to see how much time it takes."

"Good, let's do that. Do we have anything else regarding the Wraith or the Pegasus galaxy?" Jack asked.

"Uh Jack, Liam also told me to tell you the Guardians are planning on leaving the Pegasus galaxy once the Wraith are not a threat anymore and the plan to relocate the people of the Pegasus galaxy is completed. They have already sent a lot of their people back in the Andromeda galaxy."

"Okay, I was expecting that already. Okay, let's now talk about the next topic on our list. We need to decide if we want to formalize our alliance with the Jaffa. Does anyone have anything to say about that or can we go straight to voting on the subject?" Jack said hoping nobody would say anything, but that wasn't the case.

"I have something to say," Klaus said, making all people in the room turn towards him. "There is a problem regarding the Jaffa that I have learned only today. It took me some time to be certain, but it appears the Jaffa have gone to war."

"What?" Jack asked, not understanding what could have possibly happened in the two weeks he hadn't been here.

"Early today, one of my spy-ships informed me that several Jaffa planets have sustained heavy losses due to an attack with the symbiote poison. We are talking about tens of thousands deaths here and it would have been much worse if so many Jaffa hadn't switched to Tretonin in the last few years." Klaus explained what happened.

"Do we know who did it?" Jack asked.

"The Jaffa do, or at least they are convinced they do. They have found some proof of the Lucian Alliance being involved in this and, as of twelve hours ago, the Jaffa have declared war to the Lucian Alliance."

"What?" Jack repeated the question, "And they didn't tell us?"

"This isn't good Jack, and not just because of the losses the Jaffa have sustained," Dmitri said before explaining. "I know the Jaffa are our friends and in a way I think of them as allies already, but when it comes to making a formal alliance with them, I'm against it. This last act of declaring war without telling us is just confirmation of my fears."

That struck Jack like being hit by a wet towel on the face, "I don't get it. What does that mean?"

"I'll explain. First off, I like the Jaffa, I like them a lot, but I also think they are not ready and they won't be ready for quite some time. Once we formalize our alliance, it becomes a contract that shouldn't be broken. In such a contract there are many rules and I fear the Jaffa will eventually break at least some of these rules. At that point, we will be obligated to intervene, simply because we shouldn't look like playing favorites with anybody and no matter what kind of sanctions we decide are adequate, the Jaffa will resent us."

"What are you talking about? Why are you already thinking they are going to break some rules?" Jack asked Dmitri not understanding where he was going with this.

Dmitri sighed, "Okay then. Let me give you an example. Our alliance with the other three great races prohibits us to go to war with anybody without talking to at least one of the other races first. Only after the other races have concluded that no other option is possible we are allowed to declare war. The same rule is applied when somebody asks us for help and even we have difficulties following this rule. Most times it would be the easiest way to immediately retaliate against the aggressor, but we are not allowed to do so. Don't misunderstand me. I think this rule is a good one. This rule protects the entire alliance against any unwanted wars that otherwise could be started by a single race in the alliance, something that should never happen. Now tell me Jack. Do you think the Jaffa can follow such rule religiously or would they sooner or later bend the rule? Look what they just did without telling us. Technically we are not yet formal allies, but still, they should have informed us of what was going on immediately."

Jack thought about it for a moment and he had to admit, there's a good chance they would disregard such rule even after they signed the alliance. After all, they are a warrior race and diplomacy was never their forte, "I understand what you mean, but do you think we are better off without signing anything?"

"I do. We are now friends. We can help each other when needed and when they screw up we can guide them and help them, the same way we have done for the past two years. Only after these two years we can say the Jaffa have finally understood what a modern society should look like and in that time there were many cases when we were ready to give up. That's how stubborn they are."

Jack was thoughtful. A minute ago, he was certain this would be the easiest point on today's agenda that they would have to discuss, but now it looked as if they would decide against it and Jack could even understand the reason why. He actually thought the same as Dmitri, but his friendship with Teal'c and Bra'tac had obfuscated his reasoning. The sad truth was that the Jaffa were not ready and he didn't know if they would ever be, at least not any time soon. Besides, if what Klaus had just told them was true and the Jaffa had declared war to the Lucian Alliance, they couldn't sign an alliance with them anyway, at least not at the moment. Jack looked at Daniel and saw the same reaction in him. He knew Daniel was also torn between his friendship with the Jaffa and the logic Dmitri's words contained. "I have to agree."

That answer made the other members look strangely at him. They all thought he would have fought much harder on this issue. They weren't even sure they could sway him against making the alliance, but it looked like Jack had his doubts even before this meeting had begun. With the recent information, those doubts must have become even more prominent.

"I also agree. No matter how much I like the Jaffa, I think Dmitri's assessment is right. The Free Jaffa Nation is still too young and it could do more harm than good if we formalize an alliance with them right now," Daniel said, agreeing with Dmitri.

Soon the others agreed as well and the vote of _not_ making an alliance with the Jaffa was unanimous. They also discussed what to do in regard to the recent development between the Jaffa and the Lucian Alliance and Jack decided he would go to Dakara and talk to Teal'c to learn a little more.

The Council continued with the other topics on their list. The next one was the Chinese expanding at a frightening pace and already planning on colonizing another planet. It was a problem the Terrans hadn't anticipated and didn't know how to solve. The Terrans didn't care much about the Chinese expanding in the galaxy or at least it wasn't their primary concern. What they really feared though was what might happen once the Chinese started interacting with other races in the galaxy and how would they be perceived by other races. Would those races think of them as a separate race, or would they think of them as the Tau'ri. They also feared the Chinese would sooner or later bend some rules, especially the one they stipulated that states they can't colonize planets with other sentient races already on them. Of course, the Chinese would never defy such rule, not directly, but they could always try to annex some world and all the inhabitants on it in some kind of confederation. Of course, such planet, with probably only a few hundred thousand humans, wouldn't stand a chance against the numerical superiority of the Chinese, very few races could. They would be quickly taken into their fold and the planet would be theirs. The Terrans would also have a difficult time trying to stop them in such tactics since the situation on Earth was still precarious in many ways. There was no more talk about war or anything similar, but an incident on one of the Chinese colonies could send them back when there _was_ still fear of WWIII happening. Another problem they might have was, what if the Chinese started a war with some other race. The Terrans would still have to protect Earth as this was their main job. This would inevitably toss them into a war the Chinese would have started, with no way of claiming neutrality.

"So, does anyone have any idea on how to deal with the Chinese expanding on other planets?" Jack asked since he didn't know exactly what or if they should do anything.

"We can change the location of our third colony for starters," Jacques Dupont, the Head of the Colonization Department replied.

"Change it where?"

"To a planet close to the Chinese colony. I think there's a planet nearby that has some useful minerals and possibly even Trinium. If the Chinese haven't visited the planet already, they are going to do it very soon," Jacques said, also pushing a few buttons on the console in front of him to change the galactic map on the main display.

Paul looked at the planet the map was displaying. It was a good planet and it was only 26 light-years from the Chinese colony. The display also showed the various minerals the survey mission had found on the planet, "The planet looks good to me. Maybe not as good as the planet we were planning as our third colony, but the vicinity to the Chinese colony would give us a way to monitor them more closely."

"So, we are going to grab the planet from the Chinese. Don't you think the Chinese are going to object to that?" Dmitri asked, knowing full well such a move could have repercussions.

"And what if they do? They don't have monopoly over planets," Jack said.

"That doesn't mean they will like it. If we take that planet, they'll have to look for another one and there are no planets in the vicinity with a stargate. I think they are going to be pissed," Dmitri explained.

"Well, I still think it is a good idea, but I think I should talk about this with president Hayes first and see what he thinks," Jack said.

The others in the room nodded and the meeting continued with another in the endless list of subjects they still needed to discuss. Jack was still thinking how this wasn't the greatest way to start working after two weeks of vacation. This meeting had completely negated the stress release he had felt during his well-deserved fishing vacation, and he could almost feel a headache coming to the forefront.

The meeting had continued for several more hours, in which time the Council had discussed several more issues. Those issues were not critical since the Terrans and the rest of the galaxy were finally at peace, at least most of the time. The Ori were still here, but they hadn't done anything in almost two years. They would show up from time to time, their priors still trying to convert some planet with a smaller population to their religion, but there hadn't been any major campaign like the one on Langara. Jack believed that, after they'd lost so many followers and ships almost two years ago, they needed to rebuild and reevaluate their tactics since, by now, they must have understood the Terrans and their allies won't be such an easy prey. Jack knew that sooner or later they would come back, especially since they hadn't found the second supergate yet and it meant the Ori were still able to bring whatever they wanted to this galaxy. The Terrans knew that and they hadn't spent the past two years doing nothing. In that time, they had increased their production capacity by more than two hundred percent, they had colonized another planet, Terra Nova, and they were planning to colonize a third one in very short order. Also, Jack could only imagine what Liam had accomplished in these two years of peace. After all, the Guardians didn't have to worry about the Senari in the Andromeda galaxy, the Wraith in the Pegasus galaxy or the Ori in the Milky Way galaxy. They had a lot of time to devote to building their infrastructure without having to worry about anything. Jack also wished he knew more about the Asgard and what they were doing, but except for the monthly meeting on Tantalus, he knew very little about the little grey aliens.

* * *

**Andromeda Galaxy – Space Station  
**_Stardate: 1846.9_

Sitting on the floor of his room with his legs crossed, Liam was spending his free time meditating. A practice he had learned to do every day ever since Lya had talked to him, explaining how he was changing and that he needed to exercise both his mind and body, now more than ever. While he was seated on the floor with his eyes closed, the room in front of him was riddled with holes in the fabric of space-time. The cracks in the fabric of reality would change form, color or suddenly close, only for new ones to pop out as if from nowhere. Such exercise wasn't easy to do and Liam was so concentrated that he didn't even register the sudden arrival of Aenea in his room. Something that hadn't happened in quite some time since he was now more than capable of sensing an ascended being in his vicinity even when they didn't want them to. The first time he had greeted Aenea, even before she showed herself, he almost gave her a heart attack. Not that it is possible to give a heart attack to an ascended being, no matter how much you tried, but her expression conveyed that exact sentiment. She started to babble, asking questions like how or when he first started showing such ability that not her or anybody she knew could explain. He had simply replied that this had been the first time he was able to sense her and that he also didn't know how, just that he could. Then, they'd started a game of hide and seek in which she would disappear and he would continuously reply – _'nope, you're still here… now you are there' – _and so forth until Aenea was convinced that indeed it hadn't been just luck the first time. She was now even more surprised that he hadn't sensed her, but when she saw what he was doing, she understood why.

"Liam, stop it!" Aenea yelled at him.

The spatial anomalies suddenly disappeared and Liam opened his eyes, "Are you trying to give me a heart attack? Don't do that again!"

"Are you trying to blow up the station? Or is it just recklessness?" Aenea replied angrily. "Nobody can be in control of what you were doing."

"As you can see, I can," Liam replied, not liking her patronizing tone of voice.

"What are you even trying to accomplish with this?"

"By making these anomalies, I'm closer to understanding them and to understand the fabric of reality," Liam replied, knowing full well she would press the matter further.

"To what end?"

"Aenea, the Alterrans have always been scientists. Understanding how things work has always been our way," Liam said, pausing for a moment. "And I also want to understand how that stupid anomaly in this galaxy works."

"Ah well, now we are getting somewhere. Why are you so obsessed with that anomaly?"

"Because, if I understand how, I'm a step closer to understanding those who made it and their real capabilities," Liam explained.

"Liam, that thing's been there for a hundred thousand years. There is a chance that whoever built that thing is long gone, probably dead."

"Somehow I don't believe that to be the case. No, I'm more than certain that whoever made it is still alive and kicking," Liam said, thinking of the vision he had with the Vargas fleet in it.

"Fine, do as you please, but don't say I didn't warn you when you blow up the station, with everybody in it."

"I'm seventy-five percent certain it won't happen," Liam replied mockingly.

Aenea sighed. There was no hope for her husband and she knew it. Aenea remained silent for a long time, something Liam picked up immediately, "Aenea."

"Yes?"

"Why are you here?"

That reminded her that this wasn't just a social call, "I have a mission for you."

Liam blinked twice. _What could she have possibly meant by that?_

"A mission?" Liam asked, really wanting to hear the answer.

Aenea nodded in confirmation before proceeding to explain, "I need you to find Anubis."

Again, Liam was plastered, immediately jumping on his feet with incredible speed, "Find Anubis? Why? Or better yet, don't _you _know where he is?"

"No, I don't," Aenea replied.

"Wait-wait, are you telling me you can't find that bastard anywhere? Why do you think I can find him if you can't?"

"It's not that I can't find him exactly, it's more like… I'm forbidden from trying."

This was becoming more ridiculous by the minute, "So, you know where he is?"

"I have my suspicions, yes."

"So, why do you need me?"

"I need you for what comes after you find him."

Liam took a long moment to think about what Aenea had just said, pacing up and down the room. Finally he understood what she wanted to happen after he found him, "Well, that leaves us with one question you haven't answered yet. Why?"

Aenea took her time, not sure if she should answer, "Do you really need to know?"

"What do you think?" Liam deadpanned without a second thought.

"It's because of Oma. There are rumors she has spent the last two years on… Anubis' duty."

Finally the picture became a little clearer, "So, you want me to take care of him and by doing so, free Oma from her punishment. That also means Oma's disappearance was actually _her_ finally taking actions against him."

Aenea nodded, "These are only rumors, there is no proof of that, but her disappearance coincides with his and I don't believe in coincidences."

"No, me neither. Alright, I like this mission, but where do I start looking?"

"Try the place where Oma spent a lot of her time."

"Kheb," Liam replied knowingly.

"There is a problem though. I have no idea how the others are going to react."

"To which part? Going there, trapping Anubis or killing Anubis?" Liam asked.

"To all of them, but if I were you, I wouldn't go so far as to try to kill him… even if you can. Can you?"

Liam smiled, "Maybe."

Aenea didn't like the answer one bit, "Maybe? How do you mean maybe?"

"Well I never tried so, I can't be certain," Liam replied, thinking about the research Merlin did and that Liam had continued ever since he had received the data Merlin had given him.

"Okay, but, as I said, try not to go too far. The majority still believes in the old rules and you know how they get when somebody doesn't follow them."

"I know, I know. Although, there is a contradiction in those rules."

"There is?"

"Well, they preach a lot how the lower and higher plane shouldn't mix, but when things don't go as they planned, they have no problem messing with the lower plane. Theoretically speaking, they should never interfere with whatever I do in the lower plane if they are to follow their own rules to the letter."

"I would rely less on what theoretically they should and shouldn't do, and more on what the reality is. And you know very well what that is."

"Don't worry, I do," Liam replied, still unsure what he was going to do once he reached Kheb and he was finally face to face with Anubis.

Aenea nodded. It was time to leave. Liam was also very surprised no other ascended being had dropped unannounced while she'd talked to him. Usually they'd monitored her very closely when she would pay a visit to her husband, but today this wasn't the case, which he found to be very peculiar. Nevertheless, it's never a good idea to test your luck too much and Aenea too knew it was time to leave.

Liam once again remained alone in his room. He wasn't about to start meditating again even though, thanks to Aenea, his session today hadn't been a very long one. He decided it was time to leave the Andromeda galaxy and travel to the Milky Way galaxy, but Kheb wouldn't be the first planet he would visit. Instead, he needed to talk to the Terrans first.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**


	2. Peace NEverlasting Part Two

**Author's Note: Here comes the second chapter, as promised, delivered at the end of each week.**

**Special thanks to those who left a review. They are always appreciated.**

**To apocalyps24 the only thing I'm prepared to say at this moment is 'good things come to those who wait' and that this story is not about relationships. That part I'm leaving to the imagination of the reader.**

**Here comes Peace (N)Everlasting (Part Two). I hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Dakara  
**_Stardate: 1847.32_

Jack once again stepped out of the event horizon bellow the burning sun on Dakara, the holy planet and seat of power of the Free Jaffa Nation. Although still more than certain he could never live on such a planet, Jack had to admit there were changes here, good changes. It took a lot of convincing to make the Jaffa realize that with a little effort they could make this planet almost livable. With the ability to bring water from other planets as well as plants and other things usually lacking on Dakara, the Jaffa had started changing their capital's landscape into a beautiful oasis that even Jack would someday, after many more improvements, start to finally like. The Jaffa had also decided to take out all the Goa'uld-style decorations made mostly of gold from their buildings. Jack thought it was tacky to have so much of the shiny material on every wall and he was glad when he had heard they were removing them. There were also new buildings now in the capital. There were more and more Jaffa living here and the previous infrastructure on the planet wasn't adequate enough to accommodate so many.

Other than architectural changes on Dakara, Jack also noticed something else this time. Every Jaffa on the planet was on high alert and when he looked back at the gate, he saw the gate having a forcefield around it. Thankfully they'd informed them of the forcefield a few days ago, because if they hadn't, he would have ended his life today, by simply stepping through the gate. The forcefield, as well as many more armed Jaffa all around him, also made him realize that what Klaus had told him was true. The Jaffa were at war.

Jack continued his walk toward the main building in search for Teal'c or Bra'tac. Strangely, he didn't have to go far since he could already see the former standing on the steps of the main building, waiting for him. Jack realized that now that they needed access codes to come to Dakara, there was also a good chance of Teal'c having been informed of his arrival the moment he had inputted the code.

As he reached Teal'c, the two men shook hands in the usual Jaffa style. "Teal'c, good to see you old friend," Jack greeted his friend.

"Likewise O'Neill," Teal'c replied. "May I inquire what the reason is for you being here today?"

Jack turned pointing a finger at the Jaffa in the courtyard clearly preparing for battle, "That's why!"

"So, you have heard."

"Yes I have, but I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed I didn't hear it from you."

"I apologize O'Neill. There was no time."

Jack sighed, "You should have found the time Teal'c, especially now."

Teal'c didn't understand why Jack was so disappointed. After all, the attack on the Jaffa happened only three days ago, "Why especially now?"

"Because if you recall, we were in the process of making an alliance, remember?"

"Were?" Teal'c replied after noticing Jack had used the past tense.

Jack sighed again, "Yeah."

"May I ask why?" Teal'c asked, now certain something was wrong.

"Because you declared war without telling us and now the council is not so sure an alliance is such a good idea. And frankly, neither am I."

"I do not understand," Teal'c said, his expression conveying his word's meaning even more.

"You know that one of the rules, once we sign our alliance, is that you _can't_ go to war with anyone without telling us first."

"But we have not signed our alliance yet?"

"I know, but now the council has doubts this won't happen even after we sign. The Council fears that if you didn't inform us now when we were so close to signing the alliance, you wouldn't do it even after we did. And now that you are at war, we can't sign it even if we want to, since you declared war to the Lucian Alliance without us."

Teal still didn't understand what the big deal was. He knew about the rule Jack had just mentioned, but when they had found out about the attack, and after they had confirmed it was the Lucian Alliance behind it, they didn't think twice on what their next move should be, "When we learned about the attack the council immediately declared war. We did not think it was necessary to inform you first."

"I know, and that's the problem. You didn't think and that is making our council believe it could happen even after we sign," Jack tried to explain, especially after seeing Teal'c face conveying how he didn't understand what the fuss was all about. "Look, I know you didn't do it for any ill reason, and I also get the only thing on your mind right now is revenge for those who have died, but an alliance means we are partners and in a partnerships we need to decide stuff like this together, and not learn about it three days later and especially not from other sources than you."

Teal'c understood, "I apologize O'Neill. Is there something that would change your council's mind?"

"No, at least not for now, but don't worry, we are still friends, just the signing is postponed. Look, don't worry about it now. In time, I'll be able to sway the council back, but it will take time. It is now more important to see what can be done regarding the Lucian Alliance. I was stunned to learn they attacked you so openly."

"As did we. We never believed the Lucian Alliance would do such a thing."

"How did you find out they are behind this?"

"On one planet we were able to stop them before they escaped through the gate. They probably believed that, after the attack, there would be no one left, but most of the Jaffa on the planet had already begun using Tretonin and when the attack started, they quickly secured the gate."

"Did they say why the Lucian Alliance is suddenly stepping up their game? They have after all been quiet for more than two years."

"They did, after some convincing. O'Neill, if what they have told us is true, this is only the beginning. The Lucian Alliance believes the Ori menace is over and they want to take control of this galaxy. Their plan is to attack us first. Once they win against the Jaffa, they will turn against you as well."

"Well, they really have great expectations, don't they? I think we can safely say they won't succeed. Together we can bring them down in a very short time."

"O'Neill, we are not asking for your help. We will deal with the Lucian Alliance alone."

"Why?"

"Because we are warriors and we must prove ourselves as such. In the last five years the Jaffa have always had help from you and many do not like that fact. We must stand on our own."

Jack sighed. It was the same story all over again. The Jaffa pride was getting in the way of a swift and decisive victory, but Jack also knew the Jaffa needed a cause that would prove their worth and he knew going against their wishes on this would be worse, "All right Teal'c, but promise me you'll ask for help if you need it. Humans as well as Jaffa sometimes suffer from a bad case of too much pride and I wouldn't want to see you get hurt because of it."

Teal'c understood Jack's words perfectly and he as well believed how pride wasn't a good trait, "I will O'Neill, but for now we will do this on our own. I also believe the Ori have not been defeated and that they will be back, and soon. Then, you will have your hands full dealing with them, and having to fight the Lucian Alliance is not as important as stopping the Ori."

Jack nodded in understanding. The two of them continued discussing other things for a few more minutes, in which time Bra'tac came and they had to repeat their previous discussion with him present. Bra'tac also didn't like what Jack had to say, but eventually he as well understood why the Terrans had stopped the talks for their alliance. In a way Bra'tac thought it was better this way since many in the council weren't too happy about many of the rules the treaty had. Bra'tac was also the type of person who liked more a handshake between two people pledging their friendship than a piece of paper thousands of pages long. In Bra'tac's mind, they were friends who would help each other in need and that was all that was important.

Jack went back to Earth, leaving his two friends behind to discuss other matters.

"Is everything ready?" Bra'tac asked.

"It is. Rak'nor is already on the ship awaiting orders."

"Tell him to leave immediately."

Teal'c nodded before leaving the courtyard. Bra'tac turned as well to return to the war council to continue their preparations for the many battles that awaited them.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Rak'nor's Ship  
**_Stardate: 1876.40_

Rak'nor stood in the center of the bridge behind the Pel'tak. Since Bra'tac and Teal'c had become members of the Council and especially since Gerak and his followers had disappeared, Rak'nor had quickly climbed the ladder in the Jaffa military. He was now the Commander of the fiercest FJN task force now tasked to spearhead the Lucian Alliance.

It hadn't been easy for him though. After the losses his task force had sustained at the hand of the Ori more than two years ago and after the traitor Gerak had attacked Chulak, Rak'nor started believing he was a magnet for trouble. Fortunately, things had changed for the better after the attack on Chulak. The council saw how he had fought bravely on the planet, and they also didn't think anyone could have done any better when he had fought the Ori at the Supergate. He had finally received a new task force with six Ha'taks of the new and improved model, the Type III Ha'tak, and he had been tasked to chase the traitor Gerak. He had fought in several battles, always winning against the, by then, already dwindling forces Gerak still had at his disposal and the only thing he didn't like was the fact that Gerak had managed to escape and disappear. All those battles had helped him become the valued commander he was today, today when his services were needed once more.

The three perpetrators, those that had been caught while deploying the Tok'ra symbiote poison, had spilled their guts after a few hours of interrogation with the pain stick as the main incentive. They told him about their master plan to attack the FJN and then the Tau'ri, and Rak'nor wasn't impressed. The plan was with many faults and the use of the poison to get rid of the FJN was only a pathetic attempt only meant to fail miserably. Almost seventy percent of the Jaffa were now on the Tretonin drug and once they had learned about the threat, they have stepped up their security on most worlds, preventing any more incursions through the gate or via ship. If the Lucians believe they can win against somebody like the FJN with the poison alone, they were going to be very disappointed.

Except for their master plan, the three Lucians had also told them of a planet with one of their bases there. His task was to go there and take care of whoever would provide resistance and, if possible, to make many more prisoners that would give them more useful intel on the Lucian Alliance's whereabouts. Rak'nor liked the idea of him seeing more action after more than a year of doing nothing except patrolling systems and supervising the construction of new vessels. He was after all a warrior, and warriors need enemies to prove their worth.

As the task force exited hyperspace, the front of the leading Ha'tak showed the planet in the distance. Using the ship's sensors, Rak'nor quickly found there were no ships anywhere in the vicinity. To him, it was disappointing to find out the planet wasn't defended. He was already cherishing the moment he would face the Lucians in a space battle and show them what their new ships can do. It was also a conundrum he didn't like. _Why would a Lucian base be left undefended?_

"Scan the planet," Raknor ordered to one of his subordinates present on the bridge.

It took some time before the reply came, "I have detected energy emissions originating from the planet's surface. It must be their base of operation."

Rak'nor watched as the screen changed, zooming in on the area where the energy emissions were coming from. Since the planet didn't have any technologically advanced race on it, the lonely energy readings were a clear indication what their next destination was going to be. "Prepare the Tel'taks. We are going on the planet's surface."

It had taken Rak'nor a little over ten minutes to reach the hangar bay where two Tel'tak with many Jaffa already there were awaiting his arrival. Quickly, from the six Hat'aks in orbit, half a dozen Tel'tak descended into the planet's atmosphere. It took them a few more minutes to reach the clearing located only three hundred meters from the entrance of the Lucian Alliance's base and land on the surface. Each Tel'tak was carrying a dozen Jaffa, armed and ready.

Rak'nor, followed by six dozens Jaffa, entered through the large entrance door, moving quickly down the main corridor. As they proceeded deeper into the complex, the Jaffa split on every intersection they would find. The splitting continued on several more junctions until Rak'nor found himself being accompanied by only four more Jaffa. So far they hadn't encountered any resistance and Rak'nor didn't understand why.

Watching the walls of the base, Rak'nor couldn't recognize the designs. They were clearly not Goa'uld and even the few times he'd been on one of the Tau'ri bases as well as on their Alpha Site was telling him this base had been made by somebody else. There were no decorations on the walls and clearly whoever built this crude complex had only thought of low cost and bare functionality.

The small group of Jaffa reached a large room with nothing inside except for stacks of crates. One of the Jaffa entered, opening one of the crates closest to him. The crate was filled with corn and the Jaffa was well aware what kind of corn that was. Rak'nor motioned to the others to keep moving in search for the next room, hopefully with something more interesting than corn in it. While walking closer to another door, he heard zat-gun and other unfamiliar weapon's fire that sounded similar to the weapons the Tau'ri used echoing through the corridors. His fellow Jaffa must have found opposition somewhere inside the base. It didn't matter. He had complete confidence in his men and turning back would do nobody any good.

As he approached the door, he heard voices coming from inside. Finally, he as well would soon taste battle. The double-doors slid open the moment Rak'nor stepped near them. He was immediately greeted by a stream of bullets rushing through them. By now, whoever was on the other side must have been informed of the intruders. Two of the Jaffa quickly moved to the other side of the door the moment the bullets stopped flying while Rak'nor glanced inside to see what they were up against. He counted only three men inside. From both sides of the door the Jaffa leaned as one, shooting several times from their zat-guns before quickly taking cover again. In that split second, Rak'nor was able to see at least one of the men inside being hit. He was already prepared to lean and shoot again when a small spherical object rolled through the door in front of him. With incredible reflexes Rak'nor kicked the sphere back inside the room. The next second, the room was washed by a bright light and a high pitch sound. Grenades were a great weapon to use on many occasions, but the man inside had used it on the wrong one. You never give the chance for someone to kick back the grenade before it detonates. Rak'nor leaned again, confirming all the hostiles were now unconscious. He entered what appeared to be a control room of sorts, with several terminals all around it. The Jaffa with him quickly picked up all weapons lying on the floor near the unconscious people, while Rak'nor moved to what appeared to be a surveillance system of the entire complex, showing corridors and rooms alike. It wasn't strange at all the people inside knew they were coming, although, it didn't help them much in the end. As he watched the monitors, he was glad to see his men were doing a great job of taking care of the dozen hostiles elsewhere in the complex. And yet, Rak'nor felt something was wrong. This was no base at all. This was some kind of warehouse for storage and nothing more. No base would have been protected by only a dozen people and they weren't even combatants of any caliber.

"Bring me that man," Rak'nor ordered to one of his man who immediately grabbed the unconscious man Rak'nor had pointed, quickly placing him on a chair.

Rak'nor slapped the man several times before he finally woke up, "What is this place?"

"Jaffa. This world is ours. You have no right to be here," the man snorted back.

Rak'nor backhanded the man again, and this time it wasn't to wake him up, but rather to inflict pain, "I will ask you again. What is this place?"

"What it looks like! It's a warehouse where we keep our stash of Kassa," the man replied grudgingly.

"This should be a Lucian Alliance base."

"What base? Does it look to you like this is a base? And why are you even here? Didn't our leaders come to an agreement more than a year and a half ago?"

"We did, but then you attacked our planets with the symbiote poison and that changes things," Rak'nor replied hatefully.

"What poison? I know nothing 'bout any poison."

Rak'nor was about to punch the guy when he suddenly stopped. This did look strange to him. Instead, he turned and ordered his people to take them back to the ship.

The Jaffa did as they were told while Rak'nor remained behind, thoughtful. Something was wrong here and he knew it. These people here were not the masterminds behind the attack on their planets. Not knowing what else he could do, he began moving out of the complex on his way back to the Tel'tac.

Once Rak'nor had returned to the ship in orbit, he ordered the warehouse to be immediately destroyed. Several plasma bolts plummeted from the sky obliterating the structure. Nothing remained standing.

From afar, a small drone was watching and recording everything. The machine was also able to get the footage from the surveillance system inside the warehouse. As its sensors told the drone the six Ha'taks had left the system, the small machine flew toward the already dialing gate, only to fly inside the event horizon. Its preprogrammed mission was finally over.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Asura  
**_Stardate: 1880.3_

While Terrania was still their Headquarter, Asura had become the scientific mecca for everything the Terrans wanted to research. The Terrans had lately spent a lot of their time and effort in that regard, using the incredibly advanced equipment only available on this planet to research the myriad of different technologies, both found in Atlantis and in the Asuran databases. When it comes to research, the Asuran had been eons ahead of the Lanteans and their city was a marvel waiting to be exploited by the Terrans. From the beginning, since the Terrans had acquired the rights to exploit the planet, they had sent more and more people here and to date the planet had more than a million people working nonstop. Even Sam had begun spending more and more of her time here instead of on Terrania, only traveling there when she had some meeting to attend to or some other obligations.

With the gate already connected, Sam stepped out of the event horizon. Noticing that nobody was waiting for her in the gateroom, she began walking up the stairs towards the conference room. It was strange, she had to admit it. Weir would usually await her in the gateroom, but today this wasn't the case. As she entered the conference room, she noticed the discussion Weir was having and the probable reason for her having been detained.

"I do not know. This technology could prove to be incredibly useful, but I am still uncertain if it is worth the time I must spend with your _brilliant_ scientist Rodney McKay. I have lived for many thousands of years and in that time I have never felt so… depressed, not until now that I had to spend several months working with him," Hermiod explained his reluctance to continue working on the project. "Is there someone else you can provide to help me with the research, someone not that annoying and self-absorbed?"

Weir knew very well how difficult it was to work with someone like Rodney. It was difficult for a human. For an Asgard, it must be excruciating, "I'm sorry Hermiod, but you only need to finish the final testing that won't take more than an hour or two at the most."

"I still believe two hours spent with Doctor McKay to be an exceptionally cruel punishment. I have witnessed several of your scientists taking a vacation. Why is this not the case with Doctor McKay?" Hermiod replied without any inflection in his voice, but the sentiment was clear nevertheless.

"I asked myself the same question many times, believe me," Weir replied wryly.

"If you want, I can help you finish the project," Sam added as she walked inside the room. She also knew it would make McKay extremely angry if he got kicked from the project in the last phase, which made her smile.

Hermiod turned toward Sam with sparkling eyes, "I would be eternally grateful to you."

Weir on the other hand wasn't happy at all. She was going to be the one who would have to stay here with a very disgruntled Rodney even after Hermiod and Sam returned to their respective galaxies, which were far, far away from here. She could already envision her next several days with Rodney complaining constantly about the unfairness in which he got tossed off the project _he _was in charge. Weir turned toward Sam with a reluctant expression on her face, "Fine, but only if you promise me you'll be the one explaining to Rodney why he got kicked off the project."

Sam's expression changed as well. "Fine, but let's finish the testing first and only then I'll talk to Rodney."

"Okay, but, just so you know, I'm not going to let you go back through the gate until you talk to Rodney," Weir said, knowingly.

Sam's plan of bailing out as soon as the test ended just went down the drain. She nodded, understanding she would have no other choice but to speak with Rodney.

Hermiod and Sam went to the lab where the testing was going to take place. Inside the lab a large cannon was standing on one side of the much larger room, with the target on the other. The two of them were about to test the new cannon that instead of firing bolts of plasma, it used a sustained plasma beam. The idea came to them after they'd witnessed the Guardians' energy beams having a slightly better success against Ori shields even with the same power output. The beams were capable of stressing a single point in the Ori shields for a longer period of time, making them fluctuate, unable to sustain the stress for longer periods in the point where it was being hit. Of course, the Alterran energy weapons used accelerated baryon particles and they couldn't adopt the same technology to their cannons that fired plasma instead. A new plasma containment field was needed before the cannons the Terrans used could fire a constant stream of plasma. The Asgard were also interested in such technology since they were as well trying to change their old cannons that had much less effect against the Ori ships than what they had hoped for. They realized it would be beneficial for both races if they worked together on the project instead of trying separately. And now, after months of work, they were confident the new cannon would finally work.

Sam and Hermiod began working on the two consoles in front of them, setting up various parameters needed before the cannon could be fired.

"Let's try to fire the cannon without compressing the plasma stream," Sam said.

Hermiod nodded, pressing a few buttons on the console. "The cannon is ready."

Sam nodded before pressing the firing button. The beam erupted from the cannon, hitting the target on the other side of the lengthy lab, with the beam lasting for six seconds before shutting down. Both of them were glad everything worked fine, but they knew this was the easy part. Hermiod worked on the console increasing the strength of the beam. It meant the plasma had to be compressed before the cannon fired. This entire test was to see how much they could compress the fired plasma before the containment field holding it would eventually give out, unable to hold such pressure.

The next five tests went without a hitch, the beam of plasma becoming stronger with every attempt. The sixth time the cannon fired, their sensors detected a slight dissipation of plasma even before it hit the target on the other side of the lab. They knew they had just reached the maximum strength of the plasma beam. Any further increase and the beam would lose cohesion before hitting the target.

"What do you think?" Sam asked Hermiod as he was the expert here.

"I am satisfied with the result. We have surpassed our initial goal after the fourth attempt," Hermiod concluded.

"We did? That is really great. You really did a great job with the containment field," Sam said, praising Hermiod's work.

Hermiod was glad. Finally someone appreciating the hard work he had done in the last two months, instead of listening to a certain doctor praising himself as if he was the only one working on the cannon, "I am glad. The cannon Liam has designed for you, has greatly sped up development. Combining it with the technology we use in our ion guns, we were able to create something even better."

"So what now?" Sam asked.

"Now we start production of the real cannons. We will first produce one cannon that can fit on our O'Neill battlecruisers and on your larger battleships. Then we will have to test it, but I am not foreseeing any problems there. The only problem is how many of these cannons your battleship can work with. I am not certain your ship can provide the necessary power to fire more than two at a time.

"Well, I don't think it will be a problem since both of our battleships have a ZPM."

"I understand, but eventually you will build more ships of the same class and you do not have an unlimited number of ZPMs at your disposal."

"No we don't. I don't think any more ships will have ZPMs on them, which is a problem."

"I would suggest you put some capacitors that once charged, can provide additional power to the cannons. This way you will not have to redesign your ships anew."

Sam thought about it for some time. It was true the increase in power those cannons needed was a problem, especially if they wanted to have more than two of them on their capital ships and they indeed wanted more than just two. Ideally, two cannons would be fixed, capable of firing only forward. It would be a good thing if they could place at least another two that can rotate and fire in all directions as well as other, smaller weapons. "What about our cruisers. There is no chance those ships can provide the necessary power to fire from these cannons."

"After the first cannon is produced and tested, we will design other, smaller versions that can be mounted on your smaller ships and that use much less power. Of course they will be much less effective."

"I'm aware of that, but it will give us the chance to place more of the smaller ones on the battleship as well. Two or three frontal cannons of the first type, plus three or four more of the smaller type that can rotate and fire in any direction."

"I still believe your ship's power reserves will be stretched. You risk having too many cannons on your ship that you cannot use effectively because you do not have the necessary power."

"It's possible, I'll have to crunch some numbers, but we have made some progress in power generation with our fourth generation reactors. Maybe it will be enough."

Hermiod nodded, "If you need any assistance on the matter you only need to ask. After all, I owe you one, as you humans are used to saying."

Sam smiled. She actually liked Hermiod, no matter what Rodney said, and he did complain a lot about Hermiod, "Thanks Hermiod, I will."

As the two of them were ready to leave the lab, another person entered the room.

Rodney didn't like what he was seeing. After so many months of hard work, somebody else had tested the cannon instead of him, "Wha… why no one told me we were testing the cannon?"

Sam knew she would have to spend the next few minutes explaining things to a disgruntled Rodney, but the thing that surprised Sam the most was the speed at which Hermiod ran out of the lab. She never thought an Asgard could run so fast, even after they'd solved their degenerative disease and their clones had slightly grown in size. "Rodney, the cannon's working better than expected. Good work," Sam said, playing on the scientist's ego to get out from a lengthy discussion.

"You had doubts?" Rodney said, hurt Sam would even think _his_ masterpiece wouldn't work as advertised.

"No-no, but as I said, it works better than what our initial goals were."

"Ah well, those goals were not _my _goals," Rodney said, content with himself. Still, there was another matter he didn't get an answer to, "So, why didn't you wait for me before you started the test?"

"Rodney, we didn't want to bother you with a simple test. The hard work was already done. Why bother you with a simple test when we knew it would work?"

"That's true. My time could be better spent on other projects than on a simple test," Rodney said thoughtfully, but he still had some doubts about the explanation.

"Look Rodney, I would really like to chat a little more, but I need to go back to Terrania. So, see you in a few days, alright?"

Sam said and at the first hint of a nod, she ran out of the lab and, through a maze of corridors, teleporter booths and whatnot, she reached the gateroom in record time. As promised Sam had to convince Weir she had talked to Rodney. It took a few minutes, but in the end Weir decided to let her go through the gate. Sam would have to spend the next few days on Terrania even though she hadn't planned for it. She knew Rodney would sooner or later get it, understanding he had been played and she didn't want to be near him when it happened. On the other hand, Weir knew something was wrong when she saw the haste with which Sam went through the gate. She sighed, knowing it would be on her to calm Rodney down once he realized the truth. Maybe she could convince John to take Rodney on a somewhat lengthier mission that would keep him away for the next couple of days. She turned, going straight to John's office before Rodney could show up and before he could annoy the hell out of her.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Earth  
**_Stardate: 1880.57_

Sam stepped through the gate in the large gateroom where Jack was already waiting for her.

"So, how did it go on Asura?" Jack asked.

"It went great. I'm proud to inform you we now have a working plasma beam cannon. Production of the real thing will start immediately."

"Ah, days like this make me like my life so much," Jack said.

"I bet," Sam replied, knowing how a large portion of Jack's happiness was tied to the number of big honking space guns they would develop. "There are a few problems though."

"Problems, what kind of problems?" Jack said, not liking this part.

"Well, Hermiod thinks we won't have the necessary power generation to have more than two cannons on our battleships and I don't like it."

"Two cannons are too few for a ship that size. Can't our new reactors solve the problem?"

"I thought about that, but the reactor will give maybe twenty percent more power to the ship, which I think won't be near enough. We will have to come up with something else or use smaller cannons instead."

Jack's eyes narrowed. This was unacceptable. Who would want to place smaller guns on a warship, "Can we do something else to get more power? I was thinking, maybe we can place an empty ZPM on our battleships, and use the reactors to charge it, at least a little, while the ship doesn't need the extra power. Then we use the extra energy stored in the ZPM to boost our ships."

Sam thought about it, especially about the fact that Jack could come up with some amazing ideas that nobody else even thought about, but only when it comes to big guns. Still, there was a big problem with the idea and Sam was already shaking her head, "No, it won't work."

"Why not?" Jack didn't like it. It was a good idea.

"Because the reactors are not powerful enough to charge a ZPM. You need to reach a certain power threshold in order to breach the subspace bubble that holds the energy inside the ZPM and our ships can't produce that kind of power."

"That's too bad. Wait! Can't we make smaller ZPMs instead?"

"Smaller?"

"Yeah, I mean, less powerful. They wouldn't hold that much energy, but they would be easier to charge wouldn't they?"

Sam stopped for a moment, thinking how this could actually work, "I think it's possible, but we'll have to ask Liam for that. Our knowledge of how to make ZPMs is still very limited," Sam said, knowing full well their current knowledge on how to make ZPMs went as high as pushing a button in one of the Asuran factories and _'Tada!'_, the ZPM was there.

"But if we can, that would solve the problem?"

"Yeah, it would, but as I said, you'll have to ask Liam," Sam said still plastered that it had been Jack the one to come up with such an idea in the first place, an idea that could prove to be invaluable for them. Sam sighed inwardly, wishing that Jack could apply like that more often and even when guns weren't involved.

On the other hand, Jack was already thinking about when was the next meeting with Liam scheduled, but as he thought about it, his wish got fulfilled and he disappeared in a bright flash of light.

Sam thought how even faith was on Jack's side when it came to guns. The moment he needed Liam, he got transported away. It was amazing and, at the same time, a little frightening.

* * *

**Earth- Liam's ship  
**_Stardate: 1880.59_

On board Liam's ship, Jack was greeted by Liam and William, "Hello Jack. Long time no see."

"Just the man I was looking for," Jack deadpanned happily.

Liam wasn't sure what was this all about. Usually Jack would be less than happy to be beamed aboard his ship, "I am? What for?"

"Well, as you know, the Terrans and the Asgard have worked on a new type of weapon for quite some time now and we now have a working design for the plasma beam cannon, but there is still one problem. The cannons the Asgard are planning to install on their battlecruisers use too much power for our battleships, so we wouldn't be able to place more than two and I don't like it. I liked even less Sam's idea to place smaller and less powerful versions on our battleships," Jack said, disgusted at the last part. _'Smaller guns? What was she thinking?'_

"I can see why you wouldn't like that idea, at least from your perspective," Liam replied.

"Yes, well… anyway, my idea was to place an empty ZPM on every battleship and use the ship's reactors to pump the excess energy in it to be used later when it was needed, but Sam told me our reactors are not powerful enough to do that," Jack blurted it all out like he was on speed.

"Sam is right. Any of your ship's reactors are nowhere near powerful enough to charge a ZPM; none of ours are either."

"I got that, so I asked Sam if it is possible to make smaller ZPMs. I mean, less powerful ones… they don't have to be smaller. They wouldn't be as powerful as the real thing, but if those could be charged aboard our ships, they could boost our energy reserves considerably when we need them the most."

Liam looked at William with a puzzled expression on his face, but it was William the one to speak first, "Why haven't we thought about that? It would have solved a lot of problems."

Liam was also thoughtful. Why indeed hadn't they thought about that, "It's possible. To be able to charge them directly from our ship's reactors they would have to contain at least a thousand times less energy than the original, but even then it could still give a tremendous boost to our ships, at least for a short period of time. I'll still have to check a few things. It's been a long time since I last worked on the theory behind it, but I don't see why it wouldn't be possible."

"Sweet! When can we start producing them, and would the smaller cruisers be able to use them as well? Maybe we can place one on every cruiser, and three or even more on our larger ships. This micro-ZPM could be the greatest thing we discovered since Naquadria," Jack was ranting at double speed, thinking of all the ways they could use such a precious device. The problem of not being able to recharge the original ZPMs was a debilitating one since waiting ten years to charge one was making it almost useless on any scale, but with the advent of micro-ZPMs, things could change drastically.

Liam as well was plastered by the good idea that Jack came up with. Their ships too would have great use of the extra power those devices could provide the ships with. Still unable to fully understand why nobody else had come up with the idea, he decided it was time to switch to the real reason he was here, "Jack, the moment I have the blueprints for the micro-ZPM, as you call them, I'll send them to Asura so you can start producing them, but let's now talk about something else, shall we; the real reason I'm here."

"Alright, what's up," Jack replied cheerfully, now that he got the info he was after.

"Well, as you know, I have had a few _dreams_ from time to time that were not mere dreams, but visions from the future," Liam began.

Jack's face suddenly changed from the happy expression he had so far to a sad one, "Don't tell me. It's nothing good."

"I'm afraid so."

"I told you not to tell me! I was having such a nice day."

"Well, I'm sorry. I didn't like the dream either if you must know. Anyway, the dream was about the Ori."

"Don't tell me, they are finally going for round two."

"In essence, yes. They've had more than a year and a half to prepare and I'm afraid they are now ready to continue where they left off. The dream wasn't as clear as I would have liked, but I'm afraid more battles await us in the near future."

Jack sighed, "Well, it's not like I expected them to give up and go back to whatever galaxy they came from."

"That's true, and we are more powerful than ever and we don't have as many enemies to worry about as before," Liam stated, trying to sound positive, but he also knew their situation wasn't good. When it came to the Ori and the war with them, they were on the defensive, without the ability to strike back at the heart of the enemy. It meant they couldn't decide when or if the war ended and the best they could hope for was for the Ori to realize they don't have any chance of conquering their galaxy. Liam also believed there was no chance of that ever happening since the Ori didn't care about the number of followers they would lose. "I also think we shouldn't write the Wraith off just yet. They probably went into hibernation on some remote planets, but they are not defeated and that concerns me. If we can't find them, they could wait for years before showing up again and with their ability to grow ships, they could come back with a massive fleet that even our combined forces would have trouble fending off."

"You are right and the council has agreed to divert resources toward that goal. For now, we are prepared to divert twenty percent of our small craft production capacity to build those probes of yours. Soon, we will have even more shipyards capable of building them."

"That's good news. My people have already started production and as we produce them we will launch them on various locations in the Pegasus galaxy. If we work hard toward that goal, I think we can produce enough of them to canvas most of the Pegasus galaxy in less than a year," Liam said.

The probes were only six meters in length, and they were incredibly easy to build. Each shipyard was able to build at least five at the same time in the shipyard's separate section dedicated to building smaller craft like vipers and raptors, and it would take only a week to build them. In a year they would have thousands and the materials those probes used were not hard to find or difficult to work with. Their FTL drive was much slower, but they could always use their ships to bring them in a specific region of the galaxy, letting them free to travel to their respective destinations. Liam knew the only way to win against the Wraith was to not let them sleep. They needed to find them while they were vulnerable and strike before they could recuperate.

"How are things going with the Senari?" Jack asked, making Liam snap from his thoughts.

"It isn't. We are not near strong enough to take the fight to them, and the massive space stations in front of the anomalies that are probably more powerful than any of our ships are blocking any attempt of sending a large fleet there. They have lost interest in sending their own ships to the Andromeda galaxy and I think we are safe from them, but I don't have any idea how to bring the fight to them. There is also the problem that I'm supposed to save the Senari and not destroy them and I have no idea how to fight their neural implant."

"You still haven't found a way to disable the device?" Jack asked.

"I have, but the Senari became so reliant on the neural implant that if I just turn it off, most of them would simply die."

"That's not good," Jack said not liking the situation, "Can't you make some nanites or something else that can block the neural implant's suggestive ability instead."

Liam blinked twice in quick succession before looking at William who as well froze. This whole time they had spent trying to find a way to disable the implant, but maybe that was an impossible goal. Instead, if they could stop the suggestive impulses those devices were sending to the host, they could achieve the desired result as well. They could release preprogrammed nanites that would be quickly absorbed by the Senari and the nanites could travel to their brain and stop the subliminal messages sent by the accursed device.

Liam turned toward Jack who was standing immobile, waiting for his response. Liam didn't know what to say. Today Jack had come up with two revolutionary ideas no one else had even thought about. His ability to think of the unthinkable was amazing. Jack had been the only one to think about making less powerful ZPMs, something nobody would ever consider, and the Senari problem he solved not thinking about the device in itself, but rather what they really wanted to block and that was the signal the neural implant was sending. Liam also thought about how maybe having too much knowledge in your head could make people dumber since he knew Jack was far from being a walking encyclopedia. Maybe not having so many theories in your head allowed Jack to better assess a problem as a whole.

While Liam was thinking, Jack began to smile. He knew he had hit the jackpot with this, "I was right, wasn't I? You can block the signal."

"I think I can and the delivery system will be much easier than I thought as well. Spreading nanites on a large population shouldn't be a problem. What's up with you today? You are full of surprises."

"Ah well, I have my moments too, but don't get used to it," Jack said, but his smile subsided quickly as he saw Liam mischievous expression. "What?"

"Oh nothing, just a thought. Nothing to concern you with," Liam replied, but actually it was something that concerned Jack, and intimately.

Jack wasn't certain if Liam had been completely truthful, but now it wasn't the time to ask. He still didn't know exactly what Liam wanted him to do regarding the Ori, "So what do you want us to do about the Ori? It's not like we have too many options except to wait and see what they'll do."

"And that's the problem, isn't it? We have become complacent with what we have accomplished and now we are just waiting to see what they are going to do and I don't like it."

"I don't like it either, but what _can_ we do?"

"We still haven't found the second supergate and I want it found."

"How?"

"The same way we are going to find the Wraith. We know they need a black hole for the gate to work, so we send probes to every black hole in the galaxy. There are still too many of them to send ships to every black hole in the galaxy, but compared to star systems there are much less black holes to check. It will be a much easier task than the one we have in the Pegasus galaxy. If we are able to place a probe near every black hole, it will also mean the Ori can't make new supergates without us knowing about it. Maybe we can't win against the Ori, but it is possible we can stop them from coming here and that's enough for me, at least for now."

"That's actually a great idea. Sam is also talking about using the technology the probes use for other purposes as well. Like automated transport ships so that we don't have to worry about somebody stealing our hyperdrive technology. She said that, since nobody uses that type of FTL propulsion, it also means nobody can intercept those ships while traveling."

"That's true, although, they are much slower. You'll have to take that into account."

"We do and we are not planning on building our warships with those drives or with the same materials which are much cheaper. But for probes and transport ships, I don't see why not."

"It does sound interesting," Liam said thoughtfully. "You'll be able to build transport ships much faster and cheaper while also retaining the technological superiority with your warships."

"That's what we are thinking," Jack concluded before looking at his watch. "Look, if that's all, I'll have another thing to deal with. Daniel is leaving soon for the Alpha Site to meet with the Aschen and I wanted to give him a few more pointers before he does."

"Aschen? Why are you talking with the Aschen?" Liam asked not knowing what was going on.

"Oh, the Aschen have sent us a message saying they want to make an alliance with us and that they have _changed_," Jack said while making quotes with his fingers.

"And you believe them?"

"Not in the slightest. We believe they are frightened by the Ori more than they are of us. They also probably want to get more intel on us and what better way to get it than to make an alliance."

"So, if you know what they are after, why are you talking to them?"

"That was my exact question to the rest of the Council, but because it doesn't cost us anything to meet with them and see what they have to say, they agreed we should at least try hearing them out. They have also proved to be capable in fighting the Ori, at least when it comes to attacking them on the ground."

"I know about their flying machines they are sending through the gate, but what I don't understand is what their endgame is. They must be aware you'll never accept an alliance with them and that you'll know they actually haven't changed."

"Yeah, that's what we have trouble understanding too."

"Look, whatever you do, don't talk to them about me, my people, the Asgard or the Nox. Or about your own real strength for that matter."

"That's the reason I need to talk to Daniel before he leaves. I don't want him to start talking about our Great Alliance, how cool we are or anything they could use against us."

"Good," Liam turned to one of the consoles, working something on it. "Daniel is still in the mess hall with Sam. I'll beam you there directly."

Jack nodded and the next instant he found himself standing next to Daniel and Sam in the mess hall. It was amazing noticing that nobody was bothered anymore by such a strange entrance, but apparently it had become an everyday thing nobody even noticed anymore. Jack went to work explaining to Daniel how he was not to divulge any information to the Aschen, especially anything related to the other great races and their alliance with them. He also mentioned to Sam that creating a micro-ZPM that would allow their ships to boost their power is possible and that Liam would send the needed blueprints on Asura as soon as he had something. Jack also bragged about how he helped Liam with the whole Senari problem, explaining in details what he said. Jack had to admit, this turned out to be a great day for him.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**


	3. Diplomacy

**Author's note: **A new weekend is around the corner and, as promised, another chapter is published.

**stromwolf3710: **Well, maybe he's not the scientific genius like others around him, but to be a true leader I do believe he needs to be smarter than most.**  
**

**Nagato: **I'm glad to hear that. I hope this one does that too.

**Nano101: **Oh, come on! He's such a modest person. ;) Besides, if it's deserved, bragging is not such a bad thing.

**Tamed Scoundrel: **A lot.

**tangielove: **Glad to hear that. And, you will have more to read, a lot more since I'm not planning on slowing down any time soon. On the contrary.

**Senrab Nomis: **Very insightful, just like Liam. There is something going on but it won't be addressed for a while. The Aschen are also in a bad position. There are a lot of potential enemies around the galaxy and simple brute force might not be the right answer. The Aschen know a lot, but keep in mind that the races in the galaxy have never seen neither one of the Seconds Great Alliance races except for the Terrans. So every intel they get is filled with myths, rumors and speculations. For the rest, you'll have to wait a few more chapters for the answer. BTW, I missed your reviews.

Thanks to my beta for helping me get rid of the mistakes I usually make and thanks to everyone else for reading and reviewing my story.

I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Alpha Site  
**_Stardate: 1884.37_

The Alpha Site wasn't a colony as Tollana and Terra Nova were. The Alpha Site was a military installation, training camp and a penal colony as of three years ago when the Terrans started collecting too many shady elements they didn't want to keep anywhere else and especially not on Earth. The facility now had hundreds of Lucians, several Goa'uld as well as many other less notable bad guys.

Except for being a penal colony, the Alpha Site also served as a meeting place when the other party wasn't welcomed on Earth. Since the Aschen had in the past tried to poison Earth, and the Terrans didn't want to give the Aschen any strange ideas, such unwanted position was also given to them. No matter how much they preached on how they have changed.

The small group of four Aschen came through the gate and they were immediately greeted by Daniel and SG-1. "Welcome to the Alpha Site. I'm Daniel and this is our lead exploration team, the SG-1," Daniel said to the four Aschen in front of him.

"I am Mollem and I do remember you Daniel Jackson. I see your SG-1 team, as you call it, has changed since the time we first met."

Daniel as well knew who he was. He also couldn't understand why the Aschen would choose Mollem to be their spokesperson since he was the one who had tried to kill them so many years ago. But then Daniel remembered the Aschen were different. They didn't feel emotions like he did and from a purely logical point of view, Daniel had no more reason to be angry at Mollem than on any other Aschen. After all, Mollem had done what he had been ordered to do; something any Aschen would have done in his place. Daniel made a mental note he'd need to always remember the Aschen were different. Still, Daniel wanted to poke the bear a little to see what kind of reaction he would get, "Interesting."

Mollem turned his gaze back to Daniel, "What is interesting?"

"You being here," was Daniel's simple reply.

"I do not understand?"

"I know."

Mollem was mystified. He really couldn't say why he being here was strange to Daniel. "Could you please explain?"

"We would never send a man that tried to kill us to negotiate an alliance."

Mollem finally understood, "You are blaming me more than you blame others of my race because I was present that day and because I was the one who executed the orders. This is interesting. Why is that?"

"Because seeing you is making me angry," Daniel replied, but without showing any actual anger.

"We do not feel anger. We have thought it would be beneficial to send someone you have already met. We will have to be more careful in the future and, if you think my presence is going to be disruptive regarding our talks, I can leave," Mollem replied.

"That won't be necessary. Please, follow me."

Mollem nodded and the group of four Aschen followed Daniel on their way to a small conference room inside the large complex.

As they went down the various corridors, Mollem thought about the architecture of the place. The Aschen had never placed great importance to aesthetic, functionality was much more important to them, but even they would never build something as crude as this Terran base. And yet, Mollem understood the place must have been built in a hurry, only thinking about its primary purpose. Maybe the Terrans would not give too much, but even this place was telling enough to him to form a picture of what kind of people the Terrans were.

They'd finally reached the small conference room in which there was an oval table with ten sitting places all around it, there was a large display on one of the walls and only a few small decorations here and there. The four Aschen took their seats on one side of the table, while SG-1 and Daniel took those on the other side.

Daniel as well had noticed how the four Aschen had watched the corridors and the room for any clues that could help them understand what kind of people they were. This was the reason why they'd chosen the Alpha Site. It was an old base, at least in terms of technology used when they'd built this place. Before the Aschen had come here, the personnel had also spent an entire day removing any technology that was too advanced, thus preventing any possibility for the Aschen to understand how far they have gone in the short time since their last encounter.

"Alright, I think we can finally start this meeting. Mollem, you sent us a message that said you want to make an alliance with us. Before we begin talking about that, I'm a little concerned about your claim of you having suddenly changed and how now you don't think of other humans in the galaxy as _expendable_ anymore. Care to elaborate on that statement?"

"What is so strange about us having changed?" Mollem replied.

Daniel hated when people replied to a question with a question. He hated it even more now because he firmly believed they in fact haven't changed at all, "To us it's a little strange an entire race could change so much in such a short time."

"That is probably true in most cases, but we have changed our ways so quickly because our situation has changed as well. Our previous behavior was a direct result of our inability to travel to other worlds that were not in the Aschen Confederation and because of our precarious need for more food to sustain our large population. Since we now have the ability to travel and colonize other planets in the galaxy, we have no need to use our… old methods to acquire a planet."

Nice speech, Daniel thought, a speech that blamed their situation instead of them. The poor Aschen had no choice so they were not to blame for what they did in the past and now that their problem had finally been solved, everything was right again, "But that also means, if for example you suddenly were again unable to colonize other worlds, you would return to your old ways, which means you actually haven't changed, just your situation did."

At that moment Mollem decided it was time to stop thinking about the Terrans as apes who only recently had decided to descend from their trees and to finally realize who they were up against, "That is a possibility, but can you say you would act differently in our position?"

Mollem was smart; Daniel had to admit at least that. So far, he didn't lie by denying his accusations and he was now making it difficult for Daniel to deny _his_ accusation either. If he simply replied the Terrans would never do such a thing, Mollem could state how it's easy to say it while you are not in such a situation. "Many countries on our planet have the same problem, but they are solving it gradually by restricting how many children someone can have, or by placing additional taxes for those who have more than one child. After all, even your overpopulation didn't happen overnight. You must have had some kind of warning signs."

Again, the ball was back on Mollem and he knew that, in the end, trying to vindicate his people's actions was the wrong move, "You are right. It is true that we had some warnings before the situation became critical and, if we had acted in time, maybe we could have solved it in some other way. I also admit that what we did was wrong and we are now doing everything we can to atone for what we did to those people."

Mitchell, decided it was time to say something. "Meaning what exactly?"

"Meaning that, now that we have the ability to colonize planets without humans on them, we have begun a project to repopulate the races we mistreated. Those who have survived will be the foundation of their races and we are giving them whatever they need to rebuild and to grow in numbers."

Daniel didn't like Mitchell stepping into the conversation, especially since he knew Mollem wanted them to ask that question because he had a good answer. "That is nice to hear. So, let's say we believe you that you are now different and that what happened in the past is all forgotten. Why would we still want to make an alliance with you?" Daniel replied wanting to move along this meeting and maybe finally learn something useful they could use.

"Because, we have a common enemy," Mollem said, making a small pause. "After we began traveling to other planets, we've learned of the threat the Ori pose to this galaxy. I must admit that, in the beginning, we didn't understand. We listened to other humans talking about a race of non-corporeal beings that has sent their followers to this galaxy to convert the human population to their religion in order for them to become strong enough to attack another group of non-corporeal beings from this galaxy. At that time, we didn't believe in non-corporeal beings or even the possibility of travel to other galaxies, but when we met the first prior, we had to change what we believed to be possible and what not. We immediately realized the precarious position we were in. The Aschen would never believe in something without proof. No matter what their priors would do to us, we would never believe in the Ori as being gods. There is no such thing as gods.

"The logical conclusion was that the Ori would annihilate us, since they would have no use for us. We started to fight them in whatever way we could, mostly by sending our attack drones through the gates to take out any Ori follower on the planet, but we already knew it was a lost cause. No matter how many followers we kill on the ground, we are unable to fight the Ori in space as they have much more powerful spaceships than what we have only recently started building."

Daniel didn't care about Mollem's ranting on how or why they wanted to make an alliance with them, "So how did you start building spaceships capable of traveling through hyperspace?"

Mollem knew it wasn't the time to start lying, but he also didn't want to tell the whole truth on how they had acquired hyperdrive technology. "We have found a small ship we believe it to be Goa'uld in origin. We were able to reverse engineer the ship's engines."

Daniel felt tired of this game who would say the least without making it obvious how they actually didn't want to give the other anything useful, but this was the game and there was nothing he could do that could change that, "And the gates? The Goa'uld usually don't keep gate addresses in their ship's computer."

Mollem was busted. They had learned about the gate addresses from the few Jaffa they'd captured and subsequently tortured, but he had just admitted how they'd found an old Goa'uld ship and that was a problem. Still, Mollem had always been quick at making more lies, "Once we were able to make our own hyperdrives, we traveled to other planets and we learned about many gate addresses. Soon, we started traveling through the gate as well and learning even more," Mollem lied as best as he could, but he knew there were holes in his story. The first problem was that no matter how many planets had gates on them, the probability of flying by ship to one of them without knowing where they were was ridiculously small. There were three hundred billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, and less than ten thousand planets had a stargate on them. Another problem was that they had traveled to other worlds before having built even a single hyperdrive, but this wasn't such a problem since they would have a difficult time proving that fact.

Daniel as well was thinking about the probability of Mollem's explanation of being truthful and he didn't like the odds, but again he didn't have enough to make a formal accusation. Still, he was more than certain Mollem was lying and he liked the idea of him being on the defensive, "So, you have started attacking the Ori and realized you can't win against them by yourself."

"Yes. Soon, we also found out that there is another race in this galaxy capable of fighting the Ori and even win in space battles."

"You found out about us."

"Correct. We learned how you have received technology from the Asgard that allows you to fight the Ori warships on a more equal footing," Mollem said, before going for the real reason for him being here. "We believe that if we combine our forces, we have a better chance of winning."

"What do you exactly mean by combining our forces?"

"You have technology that can help us and we have technology that can help you."

Mitchell decided it was a good time to say something again, something he was more than certain Jack would say if he was here, "That's never gonna happen!"

Daniel didn't like Mitchell stepping in like this from time to time, but at least in this particular case he had to agree with him, "Colonel Mitchell is right. We are not allowed to share Asgard technology with anyone and even if we were, we wouldn't give it to you."

Mollem had expected them to refuse giving any advanced technology, although, he didn't think they would have replied so bluntly. This as well showed to Mollem something. It showed confidence and it meant the Terrans were not afraid of them. "I was expecting your reluctance to give us any of your technology so easily, but I still believe we can help each other."

"How?" Daniel asked, knowing Mollem must have something specific in mind.

"The Aschen are in many areas more advanced than you are and we can help in those. We know a prior is capable of releasing a deadly virus capable of killing a specific human. We think we can find a cure for the virus and we are ready to share that cure with you, but we need more samples of the virus. Specifically, we need variations created to target different people. We believe our biotechnology is much more advanced than yours and we think we can provide help to fight the Ori if they decide to attack with biological weapons."

"And you know we have those samples, but not the technology required to find a cure," Daniel said, understanding now what the Ashen wanted.

"Exactly. We think we have other ways to prove to you we can be useful, but we would like to start from here where we think we can be of most help to you and the rest of the galaxy."

Daniel remained silent for a long time, hoping Mitchell wouldn't say anything in the meantime, "It could be a good starting point. Of course, I can't give you a conclusive answer immediately. I will have to talk to my people first."

Mollem was glad the Terrans were open to the idea, "Of course."

"Still, I think we could be more easily persuaded if you were to provide us with something else as well."

"And what would that be?"

"A sample of the bioweapon you tried to use on us."

Mollem thought about it and he couldn't find a reason not to agree. After all, he was more than certain they couldn't find an antidote for their weapon. It meant the sample would end up being useless to them. "I as well will have to ask my superiors, but I am not foreseeing any reason why we wouldn't."

"Great, I think we had a great start today. We need to talk to our leaders, but if we can come to some common ground like we did today, I think our alliance is at least possible. I would also like to emphasize how this is only the beginning and how we think it will take a lot of effort and time for this alliance to become a reality. It won't happen overnight."

"I understand, and we agree. Such things shouldn't be rushed. You will soon learn the Aschen are a very patient race," Mollem concluded.

"That's good to hear," Daniel said before asking the next important question he really wanted to know the answer to. "Mollem, there is one other thing I want to know."

"And what is that?"

"Where is our ambassador?"

Mollem was taken aback. At first he didn't understand to whom Daniel was referring to, but he quickly remembered the last time they met, the day the Terrans had learned of their real plans. Their ambassador had allowed Sam Carter to escape by tackling Boren on their harvester. He also didn't like the question. It could make the negotiations turn the wrong way. "I am sorry to inform you that your ambassador died trying to escape the harvester the last time our people met. He tried to use the same rope Major Carter used to escape and he fell.

Daniel nodded, "That is regretful. I was hoping he survived."

"I'm sorry; there was nothing we could do to save him. He fell directly into the event horizon of the stargate."

"I'm sorry too. He was a good man."

The meeting between the two races continued a little longer, touching a few more subjects like the possibility of combining their efforts to free planets under the Ori oppression. Daniel also tried to get some more clues into the Aschen mindset, but he didn't have a lot of success. The Aschen eventually left the Alpha Site, leaving Daniel and SG-1 standing in the gateroom.

"I don't get it," Mitchell said now that the Aschen were gone.

"You don't get what exactly?" Daniel asked.

"Why are we giving the Aschen the virus to make a cure we already have? Liam has provided the cure a long time ago. It is one of the reasons why the Ori haven't used it more in their campaign against us."

"We are giving them the virus only because we already have the cure. If we didn't, I would have never suggested that possibility. And in return, we will get the bioweapon the Aschen think we can't possibly understand, much less find an antidote."

"Don't you think the Aschen will find out we have deceived them?" Mitchell asked.

"It is a possibility, but even if they do, it doesn't change anything. They are the one that came to us wanting something, and not the other way around. Besides, I am more than certain the alliance will never happen so, who cares if they find out about our deception."

Mitchell looked straight at Daniel and he had the clear impression there was something else troubling Daniel, "Daniel, there's something else that's troubling you. Spit it up."

"Yeah, there is. I don't like what Mollem's explanation was on how Faxon died that day."

"You don't believe him?"

"I'm not sure, it's been a long time ago, but I could swear there was only one impact on the Iris that day."

Mitchell thought about it. He hadn't been there when it happened, but he could remember what the report said on what went down that day. "And we know one impact must have been the bioweapon Sam saw before falling through the gate."

"Exactly. That means Mollem was lying when he explained what happened to our ambassador."

"Why would he lie?"

"Because if Faxon tried to escape and his death was a direct result of our Iris, in some way it exonerates the Aschen from having committed premeditated murder, something that would have turned these talks in the wrong direction. This way there's also no body we could examine."

"That's possible, but you're forgetting another possibility," Mitchell said. Seeing Daniel looking at him expectantly, he continued. "Maybe he's not dead at all."

"You mean, he's been captured?"

"It's possible."

"Why wouldn't they say that then, and why wouldn't they release him now?"

"Because we don't know how he was treated after that incident. For all we know he might have been tortured for information about Earth."

Daniel thought about it and he knew it was a possibility, but speculating about it would lead him nowhere. There was no way to check if it was true. He also liked the fact that the Aschen hadn't mentioned the Second Great Alliance. It meant, there was a great chance they didn't know about it and it had been a good thing Jack had warned him to not mention it. Not that he would have done so, at least not intentionally, but lapses are always possible. Daniel believed the meeting had gone well, but there was still one thing that was troubling him. He was more than certain Mollem had lied when he asked him how they had obtained hyperdrive technology and he didn't know what he was hiding. Daniel, as well as the SG-1 team went through the gate to Terrania. It had been a long day and it was not over yet. He knew the Council would want to hear about what had been discussed in the meeting.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Unknown Location  
**_Stardate: 1885.13_

Odai Ventrell, as well as all other members of the Lucian Alliance leadership, was sitting in his chair around a large rounded table, watching intently at the large display showing for the umpteenth time the recording from one of their warehouses. The video showed a full platoon of Jaffa storming the warehouse and shooting everyone they had encountered. Further investigation had showed that once the Jaffa had taken all the people inside the warehouse as prisoners, they had obliterated the warehouse from orbit, leaving no trace of it ever having existed. Although he knew there were many disgruntled Jaffa around the galaxy that weren't part of the FJN, he clearly recognized at least one of them who he knew to be part of the FJN and even a high ranking member if his memory served him well. He met Rak'nor once when they stipulated their cease fire and if he had been there, it meant this attack wasn't from some rogue Jaffa elements, but from the FJN.

Odai sighed, not understanding why the Jaffa would execute such a meaningless attack without even taking anything from the warehouse. He knew the FJN wasn't happy they had signed the armistice, but since the Tau'ri had, the FJN had no choice but to follow. After all, the situation had been precarious at the time, with the Ori in full swing, and nobody wanted to divert precious resource from that war. But now, apparently, the Jaffa must believe the Ori are no more and that it is time to find someone else to fight.

"We must reply to this assault in kind, immediately!" one of the people sitting in the room barked while slamming his fist on the table.

Odai saw how the others in the room shared the same sentiment and he also knew that even two years ago when they had signed the peace treaty, many had been against it. These fools didn't understand the Jaffa were not the problem but the Terrans were, and he was very reluctant to start something that could involve the Terrans. "We must be careful here. We don't want the Terrans to get involved."

"I don't care about the Terrans!" the same man spat back angrily.

"That's because you are an idiot," Odai retorted, but he saw the others weren't of the same opinion as he was. "Look you morons! Since we signed the peace treaty, we have made more progress than in the five years before that and all because we didn't have to fight the Terrans at every step. The Lucian Alliance is above all a business, you should never forget that, and a war against the Terrans is simply bad for business."

"Sooner or later we will have to face them. Why not now?" the same man asked.

"Well, let it then be later, when we have built our forces," Odai said, wanting to find a way to calm down the currently volatile situation in the room.

"We have many ships at our disposal and we have people on every planet. Later will do us nothing to help and, again, we _cannot_ leave this attack go unpunished!"

Odai sighed. There was no way the others would let this slide, "Let us then first contact the Terrans. If they are as honorable as they are claiming to be, they'll have to intervene against the Jaffa who attacked us without provocation. If not, we still have the other option."

"We need to attack them now and not wait!" again, the same man cried in anger.

"Enough! I said what we are going to do and there won't be any more discussion on the matter," Odai replied with finality. Seeing the others didn't want to say anything else, he hastily walked out of the room before anyone could change his mind.

The others remained sitting in their chairs, no one liking the way Odai had ended this meeting. Leto, the one that had been most fervid in the discussion, was fuming inside. He didn't like this at all. "Natan was a much better leader than Odai. He wasn't afraid of waging war against the Terrans like he is."

"He's right. If we don't reply in kind to the Jaffa, they will perceive it as a sign of weakness," another member added in support.

"Odai has made his decision. There is nothing we can do," a third man replied.

"Of course there is. We can force his hand. If we attack the Jaffa before he contacts the Terrans, he will have no other choice but to leave diplomacy to somebody who wants it," Leto replied.

"And what do you think he'll do to the one who ordered the attack?"

"He will do nothing if we are all involved in it. Leader or no leader, he cannot shoot us all."

The others remained silent for a long time. They had to agree. Odai needed them and while they were more than certain he would have no problem killing one of them or maybe even two, even he could not afford to kill all of his captains.

Leto watched as nobody said anything against the idea, "Then it is settled."

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Space  
**_Stardate: 1891.86_

By now, the Daedalus had been flying through hyperspace for more than an hour. The ship was returning home to Asura after having resupplied the planet where the human refugees had been gathering before being shipped to the Andromeda galaxy. On the bridge, Colonel Caldwell was looking outside the frontal view into the swirling blue void of hyperspace while John was standing next to him, him too, bored to death. He had decided to return home with the Daedalus rather than traveling through the gate, but now, in retrospect, he didn't find the logic in the choice he'd made. At the time, it looked as a good change of pace, a way of changing what had become the usual routine. Now he was more than certain the gate would have been a much better choice.

"Sir, the sensors have detected a hyperspace window opening only twenty five light-years from our current position," the crewman operating the sensors said.

"Do we know the type of ship that made that window?" Caldwell asked.

"No sir, the sensors have never registered that type of emissions before."

Caldwell looked behind to see what John would say, "What do you think?"

"I think twenty five light-years are only a minute away," John answered.

"Helm, change course to intercept," Caldwell ordered.

"Yes sir," the pilot replied before inputting the new coordinates into his console.

Two minutes later, the ship exited hyperspace in the vicinity of a planet where, except for the planet, there was also a ship slightly bigger than the Daedalus.

"Report," Caldwell barked.

"Unknown vessel sir, three light-seconds starboard from our current position," the crewman manning the sensors replied.

In the meantime, John had enough time to take a good look at the ship displayed on the frontal view, "Crap!"

Caldwell picked up the not very professional reply from John, but if a General could not swear, then nobody could, "You've seen this type of ship before?"

"I sure did and they weren't friendly that time," John said a little perplexed.

For Caldwell this was enough to take a few extra precautions. "Marks, bring our shields to maximum and be ready to bring our weapons online. General, where did you meet our new guests?"

"It was when my team and I boarded the Daedalus from the alternate reality. An identical ship like that one was there. They were the ones attacking the alternate Atlantis and that eventually boarded our ship," John replied.

"Can we assume they are not friendly?"

"No, we can't. Alternate realities tend to be different and we have no way of knowing why they have attacked the other Atlantis."

After some thought, Caldwell decided there was only one way to go from here. "Send our standard greetings message on all frequencies and let's see what they do next."

One of the crewmen on the bridge broadcasted the message on all available frequencies, hoping they would understand them and reply in kind. It took a few moments, but eventually the alien vessel changed course, placing itself in front of the Daedalus. To everybody's disappointment, nothing else happened.

"What are they doing?" Caldwell asked no one in particular.

"Nothing sir, they are just standing in front of us," the crewman operating the sensors replied.

"I can see that," Caldwell replied since he could also see on the frontal display what the ship was _not _doing .

"Wait, they are not doing nothing. They have placed their ship between us and the planet. What's on that planet?" John asked.

The same crewman worked on his console, but he wasn't happy with the result, "I don't know sir. The ship is broadcasting some kind of interference and I can't get anything from the planet's surface from here. We would need to get closer to get some useful readings."

"Helm, try to circumvent the alien ship and push us closer to that planet, but slowly. We don't want to spook them or anything."

The pilot did as he was told and the Daedalus slowly began to move towards the planet while trying to pass on the port side of the alien vessel. As a result, the alien vessel began to strafe to his left, blocking the Daedalus once more. The pilot wasn't born yesterday and he knew he had a better position since he could use the full power of his sublight engines and he also believed the Daedalus to be more maneuverable than his counterpart. The pilot pushed a little more to the right before making a hard turn and engaging the engines at military trust. The ship lurched toward the other side of where the alien ship was strafing and before the ship could change course, the Daedalus was already through.

"Good job," Caldwell congratulated the pilot.

"Thank you sir."

The crewman working the sensors, watched intently at his console, "Sir, the vessel is behind us in hard pursuit, I'm still not detecting any weapons being activated on their ship, but with the interference the ship is emanating I can't be certain."

"Let's first see what's on the planet below. Give me whatever you can."

The same crewman started working on the console, pushing the sensors to their maximum resolution. "The planet has some ruins down there. By the design, I would say they weren't made by humans, but again I can't be certain. I'm also picking up several life signs. Some are alien, but there are also humans down there, a village with a few thousands of them at the most."

"Helm, take a geostationary orbit above the village. What is the ship behind us doing?"

"Still in pursuit sir," the same crewman replied.

"Well, they still haven't fired on us, which is a good sign," John said.

The ship reached orbit, stopping directly above the small village. The sensor had detected at least twelve aliens on the planet, but they were more interested in the ruins than the village a few miles to the south. In the meantime, the alien vessel took orbit as well, only ten kilometers from the Daedalus, but again nothing more happened. The captain instructed the comm. officer to try contacting the alien ship again and again, with the only thing he didn't try being flashing lights in Morse code, but again the ship didn't reply.

John was also starting to feel nervous, this whole thing was strange. "Captain, how many raptors do you have on board?"

Caldwell looked intently at John, knowing exactly what he wanted to do and not liking it, "Two… Why?"

"Well, if they don't want to talk to us up here, let's then go down there and ask them why."

"Am I correct in assuming you want to take your team and go down there as well?"

"Of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Somehow I knew you would have said that. Can I remind you how sending a General in what will probably be a dangerous situation is not a very good idea and that we have many teams on the ship that are more than qualified to go instead?"

"You can and I'm still going, but you are right. I have fought those aliens before and a few teams from the Daedalus as backup will be more than welcome to join me and my team."

"Fine, but why not beam down there instead?"

"I'm not sure. I think those aliens can detect our beaming technology and I don't want to spook them more than they already are. Besides, we don't know if they can block our beaming like the Wraith can once we are on the ground and I don't like the idea of not having a way to come back."

Caldwell shrugged, knowing there was nothing more he could say or do to change John's mind. After all, he was the General. John went to prepare and inform Teyla and Ronon they have a mission while Caldwell informed the crew to ready the two raptors and a squadron of vipers to be on standby as well as to inform three teams of their new mission.

The two raptors exited the left hangar bay of the larger ship, speeding toward the planet's atmosphere. They hadn't launched the vipers as they first wanted to see what the alien's reaction was going to be, but again, the aliens did nothing. The two raptors continued their steep descent toward the human village, also scanning the area to see if they had missed some of the aliens on the ground. They didn't, so they decided to turn toward the ruins. The raptors touched ground only a few hundred meters from the south side of the ruins. It would be a short walk, but John didn't want to drop too close and provoke an incident.

The four teams exited the raptors, one team remaining behind to watch over the small ships while the other three began their trek toward the ruins. It took them less than five minutes to reach what they believed to be the entrance into the ruins. John believed this was once a great city, but the design of some pillars and walls was clearly alien to him. He thought maybe those aliens were the ones that had built these ruins a long time ago.

As they were about to enter the ruins, one of the gray aliens stepped only ten meters in front of them, yelling something he couldn't understand. John immediately told his teams to lower their weapons as he didn't want to start a firefight even before saying anything. John began to talk to the alien, trying to explain who they were and that they didn't have any ill intentions towards them, but the alien's expression was enough to let him know he as well didn't understand what John was saying. John let his weapon dangle on his harness, freeing his two hands in an attempt to show the alien, rather than say to him, how they were not a threat. The alien looked as if he had understood what John had meant, but when John began to slowly walk toward him, the alien again began to yell in a not too friendly tone. Opposed to John, who didn't know why the alien was yelling at him, Teyla knew what was happening. She informed John how she believes the alien must regard these ruins as sacred ground and every time they had tried to step forward, the alien had protested. John instructed the others to move a few steps back, immediately noticing the alien relaxing a little. It looked as if the aliens weren't aggressive, but a wrong step could provoke an unwanted reaction. Still, the alien wasn't ready to step outside of the ruins, maybe as well not wanting to provoke some kind of incident. John decided the best approach here was actually to leave. He took some strange box from his backpack and slowly placed it on the ground in front of him. He tried to let the alien know that it was a present, but he wasn't sure if he had succeeded. The box contained the standard greetings package with a recording that should be enough for any advanced race to learn the basics of the English language.

The three teams turned and walked away toward the two raptors. They went to the small village to, for once, talk to somebody who can understand them. There was also the fact that the planet didn't have a stargate, but this mystery had been quickly solved when the villagers, a little frightened but otherwise friendly, explained they had buried the accursed device. For them it was evil since the only thing that would ever come through it had been the Wraith. The team spent almost an hour talking to the villagers, also explaining they now had the choice to be relocated to another place where the Wraith could not reach them. It took some convincing, but in the end, the villagers had agreed to be relocated. It was a good thing too since the aliens apparently had some interest in this planet, and even though they didn't show any hostility, incidents were still possible.

It was time to leave, promising the villagers they would send a ship soon that would help them unearth the gate and help them relocate. Once on board the Daedalus, John was happy to learn the alien had taken his gift. He didn't know if they would ever make contact with them, but this was at least a good sign.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Asura  
**_Stardate: 1897.30_

It had been a very busy few days at the Terran most useful planet. Scientist had been working nonstop in the large city the Replicators had left behind and the Terrans were here to make sure such abundance of knowledge didn't go wasted. Their latest endeavor was to finish restoring the city ship Borealis to her previous glory. It hadn't been easy though. The Terrans had worked on the magnificent Lantean legacy for a year and a half now on this planet alone and in that time they had on many occasions asked the other great races to help them accomplish their task. One thing in particular they needed help with was the installation of an Artificial Intelligence that would help them tap into the real potential of the city.

When the Alterrans had built Atlantis, they didn't need AIs to help them control the city. The Alterrans could connect with the city with their minds, interfacing with the city on a level that no other method of interaction could surpass in any way. The mind was the fastest way to access it, and through the ability to return a datastream, the user could almost instantaneously get what he wanted or instruct the city to perform a specific task.

Unfortunately for the Terrans, this particular feature was created for the Alterran physiology and not human. It meant the humans could only use a small portion of the real capabilities of the flying city and it also meant they needed to find another way to achieve the same or at least a close to it result. It didn't take them long to see that an Artificial Intelligence could greatly help them in interacting with the city and they knew both Liam and the Asgard had that kind of technology. Once the technology was acquired they had chosen Borealis to be their test subject, and if everything worked as it should, Atlantis would be next.

The work wasn't easy. While installing an artificial intelligence wasn't that difficult, they also had to install holographic projectors so that the AI's avatar could show up everywhere in the city and the programming had taken even longer since they wanted to ensure no mishaps would ever happen. They had to program several new protocols the AI would follow to the letter, always having the safety of the inhabitants as its primary concern. They also wanted the AI to have access to every system on the city and also the ability to connect with the Ancient database and quickly return any information they might need quickly. The Asgard had been of great help in that department as they had the most expertise. The Terrans also wanted for the AI to be able to learn from the humans and adapt to their mannerisms in order to make their interaction with the AI seem as natural as possible.

Zelenka was working in the control room of the city. He had done so for the last few weeks tirelessly in order to finish the last few glitches in the AI's systems, "Borealis, please connect to the Alterran database."

Near the scientist, Borealis' avatar appeared, looking thoughtful for a moment, "Access to the database has been established," the AI replied, but her face was not a happy one.

Zelenka picked up immediately. The Asgard had done a magnificent work. While the AI had done exactly what he was ordered to do, it had also changed her expression as if it wasn't happy with the result, "What is it?"

"The datastream is too slow."

Zelenka chuckled inwardly at the face Borealis had made. He recalled how he had made the same face more than ten years ago when his internet connection wasn't as fast as he would have liked it. "Okay, let's see what can be done about that," Zelenka said while working on the panel in front of him. It took a few adjustments, but when Zelenka saw Borealis smile, he knew he had achieved something.

"That's much better, thank you," Borealis replied kindly. "It's staggering the amount of data in the database. Even to me it would take hundreds of years to skim through all the data. To understand it completely, it would take thousands of years, if at all possible."

"That is why we need you. The database is so complex and big, it would take too much time to sort out what is in there," Zelenka replied.

"Zelenka, is Atlantis' twin sister ready?" Weir asked while entering the room.

Borealis turned to face Weir with a stern look, "I'm not Atlantis' twin sister."

Weir looked at the avatar with a quizzical look, "What?"

"Since Atlantis has been built by the Alterrans and I by the Lanteans, we have different parents, thus we can't be sisters. Also, while there is great similarity between us, we are far from being identical, hence saying we are twins is simply wrong," Borealis replied with a patronizing tone of voice.

Weir rapidly blinked twice. She had just been lectured by an AI, immediately hoping the AI they were going to install on Atlantis wouldn't be so petty or patronizing, "Sorry, I'll keep that in mind for any future comparison I might make."

Zelenka chuckled after having seen Weir being lectured, "Yes, the city is ready. I would like a few more tests before we leave, but since I'm going as lead scientist with her, I'll have time to make many more tests afterward."

Weir smiled, noticing how Zelenka inserted the little fact of him being the leading scientist in the sentence. He was clearly happy he got the job, finally being free from Rodney and able to use his full talent on his own. Weir firmly believed that, after having worked under Rodney for so long, Radek did more than just deserve this posting. "I see you are excited about the job."

"I am. Although, I do not know how you are going to manage Rodney now that I'm going away?"

Weir's mood suddenly changed and she really didn't know how to answer to Radek's question. In the past, Radek had helped a lot. Rodney was a brilliant scientist and probably very difficult to replace, but that also meant the man had an ego bigger than the planet he was on, no matter which planet he was on. It meant that, on many occasions, Rodney wouldn't want to do the job given to him because it was boring or beneath him or simply he would say that now he had other things to do. In such occasions Weir had to give the job to somebody else rather than having to discuss the matter with an irritating egomaniac who always believed he was right. Now, the situation had drastically changed. Since there were many projects on Atlantis that Weir would give only to Rodney or Zelenka, and since Zelenka was now out of the picture, Rodney would have to step up or she would have to find somebody else who can do the work Zelenka had done so far. "I don't know Radek, I hope Rodney will see reason. I think I can play on his ego a few times to make him do what I want, but after that I'm not sure. And this is also the worst possible moment to leave Rodney do all this alone."

"Why is now the worst moment?"

Weir sighed. She really didn't like what had happened and she didn't know what she should do, "You remember when John played a trick on Rodney when Kavanagh was caught selling top secret information? The one when they dragged Rodney back to Terrania making him believe he was the one they thought was guilty?"

"Yes, I do. Rodney was very angry at Sheppard after that day. I remember him always saying he would make him pay. What does this have to do with anything?"

"Well, apparently after that day the two of them started playing jokes to one another. Rodney had once gone to such length that he had spent several weeks perfecting a portable virtual reality device, only so that he could use it on John while he was sleeping. He actually invented something useful for the wrong reason."

"He used it on John? What was in the reality?"

"I don't know, John won't tell me, but from his expression it was nothing good. One time though, he did reply to something Rodney asked him with 'Yes Sir!' When he eventually understood what he said, he slapped Rodney really hard. Anyways, the jokes continued, every time stranger than the last time, until two days ago. I think now at least they will stop with the whole charade."

"What happened two days ago?"

Weir unwillingly started to smile, focusing hard in order to not start laughing, "Well, when Rodney finally ended his shift, he went back to his room to get some sleep. When he opened the door of his room… an avalanche of lemons dropped on him. Apparently, John used the beaming system on one of the ships in orbit to beam every last lemon we had on the planet in Rodney's room. He must have filled the entire room with the fruit."

Radek on the other hand could not stop himself from laughing, and he did laugh hard. He actually thought this was the best go away present he could get, "So what, Rodney is now angry at John?"

"Well, yeah, but the bad part is that he ended up in the medical bay. Who would have thought he really was allergic to lemons. I always thought it was only in his head, but apparently he really did have an anaphylactic shock as a result."

"Oh my, that's not good."

"Yes, it wasn't, and there must have been a psychological trauma to being buried under a ton of lemons too because he's acting very weird now, especially when he sees John. He starts shaking and his left eye starts twitching; really disturbing. John tried to apologize, but he didn't have much luck in that department."

"Ah, you know Rodney. I can bet he will be back to normal in no time," Radek said, thinking maybe the word normal wasn't the one he should have used.

"I hope so. This time John really did a number on him. He got an earful from Jennifer too. She yelled at him how he has broken Rodney and that he should go and fix him."

"If I were John, I would be careful not to get injured in the foreseeable future. I wouldn't want to get under the care of Doctor Keller if I were him. She really has big needles in there."

"Let's also hope they will stop with this stupid game for good."

"I hope that too. By the way, do you know where Borealis' next destination is going to be once I'm done here?" Radek asked since the council still wasn't sure how to utilize the city and maybe Weir heard something more than he had.

"I know as much as you do. From here Borealis will take her first intergalactic voyage to the Milky Way galaxy and then settle on Tollana. They want to keep the two cities in separate galaxies, they have agreed on at least that, but more than that they don't know," Weir replied.

"They pushed so much for the city to be ready as soon as possible, and they now don't know what to do with her. It's a little strange, don't you think?"

"There are a lot of strange things going on that I don't understand," Weir said thoughtfully.

"You're talking about the constant increase in military expenditure."

"I do. I don't know what's going on. With both galaxies going pretty much quiet, I don't see the need for building so much shipyards and warships. So far, they have started building only one science vessel while they are finishing warships in the dozens."

"Maybe they believe the Ori will come for round two and this time they'll be much more prepared."

"Maybe, it's possible, but I still have the nagging feeling they are not telling us everything."

"Maybe they don't, but I think that if that is the case, they are doing it for a good reason. I trust our council."

"I trust them too, but that doesn't mean I like being kept out of the loop. John also won't tell me anything, or maybe he doesn't know; I'm not sure."

"Well, I think it doesn't matter if he knows or if he doesn't."

"How do you mean, it doesn't matter?"

"Elizabeth, he is in the military. If he's been told to not say anything, he can't tell you even if he wants to. And if he doesn't know, well, then there is nothing he _can_ tell you. You can bother him as much as you want, but if Jack told him not to say anything he's not going to, on threat of being court martialed if he does."

"Huh, I never looked at it in that way. I have been nagging at him for months now."

"I think the only way you can get answers is from the council and not from John. Still, I'm more than certain you'll keep nagging at him, if not to get information, then just for the fun of seeing him squirming while evading the questions," Radek said while smiling.

"Radek! I would never do something like that just for the fun of it," Weir replied, but it was hard for her not to smile.

"Sure you wouldn't. My mistake," Radek said, looking straight at her. "Anyways, I need to get back to work if we plan to launch in two days."

"Sure, I'll leave you to it. I have work of my own. Good luck with the city's first intergalactic voyage."

As Radek nodded in thanks, Weir went out of the room, on her way back to Atlantis. Radek went back to finishing the few remaining systems on Borealis, now with the aid of a fully working AI capable of testing the endless number of systems on the flying city much faster than he could do it alone. He wanted for the entire city to be in perfect order before it would take its maiden voyage to another galaxy, especially since even when the city-ship had been first built, they never used it to travel such distances. He would also be the one in charge of the city until it reached Tollana, only then receiving her true commander whose identity Radek still didn't know.

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**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated. **


	4. The Birth of a Federation

**Author's note: **Here is the fourth chapter. I'm not that happy how it turned out, mostly the first part of the chapter, but no matter how many times I tried to change it, it still didn't sound right. Ah, what can you do. Apparently, there must be a chapter that you like the least.

**Stormwolf3710: **The AI is in charge of the entire city so the name is the same. Ships as well will have AIs the crew refers to with the ship's name. The grey aliens will have a role in the story, mostly to make the Pegasus galaxy a little more interesting. I'm not very familiar with the races in Star Wars, but it is not that strange since in most shows, they actually take some human characteristic and blow it over proportion. The best example are the races in the Star Trek series. Logical (Vulcan), aggressive (Klingon), paranoid (Romulans), greedy (Ferengi) and the humans of course as the do gooders.

**Senrab Nomis: **Some questions about the Lucians and Aschen coming right up in this chapter. Also, the Jaffa are a great source of information, and the Aschen know the Terrans could not have possibly made such a leap without outside help. The Jaffa are also aware the Asgard had given Earth shielding tech. Still, the inability to reach Earth without being blown to pieces is a big problem for the Aschen to actually check some facts. The Terrans are preparing for the enemy Liam had dreamed of, but only the council is apprised of that. The AI is something the Terrans must have, since only few have the ability to sit in the chair and be able to access the full capabilities of the neural interface. It was not designed for them after all.

**Draco volans: **I forgot about Faxon too, but I rewatched that episode and went back to say a few words about him too. The commander of Borealis will be... someone from SGU.

**romanhellhound: **Thank you. In my opinion, the second book will be even better. The first book was after all my first attempt at writing something.

**Thanks for reading my story and thanks to my beta reader for helping out.**

**I hope you'll enjoy this chapter too.**

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**Pegasus Galaxy – Babylon One  
**_Stardate: 1942.11_

Richard Wolsey was standing in front of one of the countless windows of the CIC level, watching intently at the void of space outside the station. Almost a year ago Richard had finally seen the light. He finally realized the future was with the Terrans and not against them, especially after he had started to see Earth's representatives for what they really were. Bureaucrats with their only job being to make problems for the Terrans without any good reason. And since he was one of them at the time, he had started to dislike himself as well. It was then that he decided a drastic change in his life was in order and what better way to do it than to join the Terrans and leave his old life behind. Since the Terrans had ways to find out if he was joining the Terrans for nefarious reasons, they were able to quickly ascertain he was telling the truth and that he indeed wanted to join them for the right reasons. From that point on, he had dedicated his life as an expert diplomat, helping brokering deals with many races first in the Milky Way and later in the Pegasus galaxy.

When the many races in the Pegasus galaxy started coming out of hiding after having learned the Wraith were not a threat anymore, his job became incredibly interesting. New races, nonhuman races, had started venturing into the galaxy once again like they had done a long time ago, before the Wraith existed, and they were all looking for one race in particular, the one that had been instrumental in the downfall of the Wraith. The Terrans.

Soon, the Terrans understood the Pegasus galaxy was changing and it was doing so very quickly, and since the Terrans didn't want for hostilities or even worse full blown wars to start among the many races in the galaxy, they knew they needed a way to make those races get to know each other in order to find a way to coexist peacefully. The solution to their latest problem had come to Jack who, one morning, had suddenly woken up, screaming only two words. BABYLON FIVE!

It had been a stroke of genius, with the other council members very much interested in Jack's idea. It would be a place where all races could meet and not just through the gate. It would be a place where deals could be made, merchandise could be sold or bought and where, hopefully, the many races in the galaxy would find a way to coexist all together in peace. Now the only problem was, somebody needed to build the damn thing.

Ideas had quickly started to flow, with engineers working on the various designs for the first Terran space station. It didn't take long when they'd realized they would need help; a lot of help. To their astonishment, both Liam and the Asgard were immediately on board, jumping at the opportunity of building something truly unique, something not even they had ever thought of building. A place where races from everywhere could come and meet was something they would really like to be part of. Even the Nox had expressed their wish to help and even send a few people permanently on the station once it was finished.

This had been the point where everything looked great and, of course, where problems inevitably started coming in, one after the other. The first problem was the station had been designed to be more than five miles tall and three miles in diameter where the top saucer section would be at the widest, and the station would be built in an approximate shape of a Starfleet Dock in the Star Trek series, with Jack actually showing the others a screenshot of how it looked. In short, the station would look like a gigantic mushroom. The problem was in her massive size, which meant a massive amount of raw materials would be needed, and since all three races knew their reserves were all to be channeled into building new ships in anticipation for the enemy Liam had dreamed of, nobody liked the idea of having to lose precious materials that could mean being unable to build dozens of warships more.

The solution to the problem could have been only one. They needed to build the space station with some other materials, some that weren't so precious or rare as Naquadah, Trinium or Neutronium were. The three races put their combined minds to work and came up with a material using three other elements nobody would lose any sleep over. The new composite material was made with carbon nanotubes, hardened steel and titanium, and everybody was more than happy how the material performed. After all, nobody cared if the station's armor was built with something heavier than Trinium, especially since the space station would not go anywhere. It would be built in the same place where it would stay. There was also the fact the station wasn't supposed to be for military purposes in the first place.

The second problem had been raised by the Asgard and the other three great races had no choice but to agree that it was a good call. The station shouldn't have any of the many technologies they deemed too dangerous to fall into the wrong hands. Among the most prominent technologies were of course the latest in weapons, shields, sensors, propulsion systems, power generation and teleportation technology. The Asgard raised the inevitable question of, how smart it would be to place those technologies on a station that was supposed to have thousands of aliens from countless unknown races roaming around, with the station not having the ability to move or to self-destruct if necessary. All ships have a self-destruct in case they are boarded and there is no other way to save the ship, but the crews know the risks involved. Something the many thousands of inhabitants on the space station, from many different races, would have not signed up for.

The first to go were the Asgard shields and the latest in plasma beam weapons. Even the Terrans agreed they were not ready to place their latest advancements in plasma beam weapons or even the latest of their plasma cannons to be available for anyone to take a look at. They all knew, no matter how many security precautions you place, there is always somebody who could find a way to go around them and steal some secrets the four great races would never want to be stolen. The next to go was the Asgard beaming technology. Everybody could imagine what kind of destruction such technology could cause if it falls into the wrong hands, especially since it had already happened in the past.

The three races had come to a satisfactory concordance on what the station should and shouldn't have. For shields they decided to use the same configuration that had been used by the Prometheus when it was first built. All agreed they could live with themselves if those shields fell into the wrong hands. After all, they were not much better than what the Ha'tak ships had at the time. Still, they had placed so many shield generators that, in conjunction with the massive central Naquadah reactor, they would provide more than adequate protection for a station with no military purpose in mind. They were also adamant they wouldn't use Naquadria to boost the reactor's power output. There were two reasons for that. One was the material being incredibly volatile and when the reactor can hold rods weighing almost a ton, it really wasn't a good idea. The second problem was maintenance. The standard Naquadah reactor was much more reliable than the N/N reactors the Terrans and Guardians used in their ships that needed constant maintenance and calibration to operate at peak efficiency. After all, they were boosted to deliver incredible amounts of power. Still, the reactor they had installed was so massive that it could provide more than enough juice to the shields and any other system in case a greater that usual amount of power would be needed, such as in case of an attack.

For weapons, the Terrans decided they would use their first version of plasma cannons, the same they had first installed on the Daedalus. Since then, the Daedalus' weapons had been upgraded three times, every time with more powerful versions so it was believed to be obsolete tech. The station also had plasma repeaters all around it. The station would have 36 plasma cannons and 80 double barrel turrets with the plasma repeater technology having been reverse engineered from the Kull Warrior's weapon. It had taken two years for the Terrans to understand how the weapon worked, mostly because it was not a priority project, but also because it was very difficult to reverse engineer something that Anubis didn't want anyone else to have. He had placed so many security measures that the scientists had to work with silk gloves the entire time.

The last weapon the station had was a gift from Liam. The weapon wasn't any revolutionary technology and if used on ships, its power wouldn't be anything extraordinary, but the space station had a saucer section with a diameter of three miles on its widest point. It also meant the circumference was more than 9 miles, perfect for a big particle accelerator. When the weapon fired, a massive buildup of protons would form on the opposite side of the saucer of where the target would be. Once charged, the protons would travel around the saucer, traversing the 4.5 miles of the saucer from both sides. The protons would at that point reach incredible speed and once the two proton streams connected, a particle beam would shoot out of the saucer at the target. The weapon was also perfect because it could fire from anywhere around the saucer, giving the station a 360 degrees coverage. The weapon could also change its power output by increments of one percent. If set on low yield, the weapon's rate of fire would be drastically increased. On the other hand, when the weapon was fully charged, it was thought it could destroy a hive with only a few shots. The station maybe didn't use the latest in weapons and shielding technology, but it was still far from being defenseless.

Three months it took to make the designs for the space station and three more for the myriad of ships from all three races to build it. Two dozen O'Neill and Beliskner ships, three builder ships from Liam and seven Daedalus class cruisers led by the Redemption, all working towards achieving one goal. It was like looking an orchestra performing a masterpiece. In unison, all ships had started building the station's support structure first and once they had finished, the outlining shape of the space station could already be recognized. The 30 ships then continued to beam the external armor plating, starting from the bottom cylindrical structure and finishing at the massive top saucer section.

Once the external structure was completed, with the station capable of being pressurized, the work continued with the beaming of the thousands of floor plates the station would need. The station after all had more than 700 levels that needed plating. Once floors had finally taken form, the first thing that had to be done was the installation of the twelve backup generators in the saucer section in order to power the life support system to allow the engineers to start working on the inside of the massive station. The Command floors were on the very top of the station and there the engineers had worked first in order to install everything they would need to control the station.

Bellow the CIC, the next 50 floors were for everything the Terrans would need for living. Accommodations for the crew, relaxation areas, mess halls, gyms, pools and storage rooms were built on those floors. The station also needed shared spaces where visitors could meet and perform businesses. A hundred floors had been dedicated for the sole purpose of races being able to mingle or buy and sell merchandise. Every race could also have an embassy on the station. Those had been built just below the Common Area and above the next 50 floors having been dedicated for guest accommodations, ranging from penthouses for VIPs to small rooms just to spend the night.

Below the saucer section were the floors dedicated to the station's hospital. Those floors were also the last available to the station's guests. Below the hospital, the cylindrical structure had a thickening where hangars, repair bays and construction yards were located. And last but not least was engineering with the reactor more than a mile long. The reactor was actually a series of 24 reactor units combined together. It had been calculated that the station could work properly even if 22 of the 24 reactor units stopped working and indeed most of the time only 4 units at a time would be online and only at fifty percent capacity.

All this made Woolsey increasingly worried. When he took the job, he thought the station would be like a fortress, impenetrable to anything, but now it looked as if that would not be the case. He wasn't a scientist, but he knew what it meant when they said the station would have nothing of the most advanced technologies at their disposal, and he even less liked the sensation of entrapment he was feeling. There was no beaming technology of any kind and there was no stargate on the station. Woolsey sighed, watching as a flight of F-302c code-name Viper flew in front of his window. He suddenly felt relieved, realizing that there were other things here that would protect the station from attack. The F-302c was the latest in fighter technology the Terrans could come up with. To an untrained eye, the third version of the fighter looked the same as its predecessors, but the craft could not be more different. The Viper had increased maneuverability and acceleration thanks to its new propulsion system and thrusters. The pilot now also had the ability to pilot the craft with the help of a neural interface, similar to what a puddle jumper had, embedded in his helmet. The neural interface would make the pilot's reaction time drop and not by a negligible amount. But all this were minor changes in comparison to the rest. The Viper had lost its railguns that had been replaced with two plasma repeaters and it had a low level shield that could absorb many shots from a similar craft before dropping or, if the shield wasn't in use, the craft could cloak instead. The Viper was a beast in its own right and the last addition to the craft was the crown jewel of the engineers' work. The Viper had a working hyperdrive capable of crossing half a light year. It wasn't much, not if you wanted to cross star systems with the ship, but this wasn't the reason they wanted the Viper to have a hyperdrive. The hyperdrive was to be able to jump anywhere in the system to quickly provide support or to make sudden attacks on the enemy. This way the number of patrols would need to be smaller since, no matter where the patrol was in the system, it could move quickly or get reinforcements in a very short time.

And this wasn't even what made Woolsey relax. What did make him relax were the three AF-307 that would, from time to time, patrol the system. The Assault Frigate was one of the latest additions to the ever growing pool of ship types available to the Terrans. The AF-307 was 150 meters in length, less than half of the BC-304, and it didn't have the two hangar bays. Even though it had never been tested, it was believed the AF-307 would be more than enough to destroy a Ha'tak if there were more than one of them. Working in packs, with their main plasma beam weapon and four omnidirectional dual plasma repeaters and railguns, combined with the latest roar in shielding, the ships could make 99 percent of races in this galaxy crap their pants.

The reason for the Terrans decision to build a smaller ship was because a galaxy is a very large place, and since they have to watch two of them, they wanted to have the numbers to do it. If they had continued building only larger ships, they would have exhausted their available number of qualified officers and technicians before having enough ships and it would have taken much longer to build so many since the frigate could be easily built in a month and each shipyard on Asura could build up to three at a time.

Behind Woolsey, a very impatient Jack O'Neill stepped closer, "Shall we?"

Woolsey turned, looking straight into Jack's eyes, "Oh, yes of course."

Together they moved to the center of the CIC where several technicians were working on their consoles.

"Is everything ready?" Woolsey asked the assorted crew.

"Everything is in the green sir," one of the technicians replied.

"Activate the first four reactor units," Woolsey ordered.

The same technician inputted the necessary commands, which was actually pushing four buttons on his touchscreen. He waited for a long two minutes before the display showed 4 of the 24 reactor units coming online, "Four units are online and in the green, I've shut down the backup generators."

"Very good," Woolsey replied. He knew there wouldn't be any problem since they had already tested all reactor units a few days ago. He turned to face Jack, "I think we are ready to receive our guests?"

"I think so too, especially since this is going to be a very long day, and I won't like it at all," Jack replied, thinking of the various introductions and ceremonies this day had been filled with.

Woolsey nodded, knowing full well Jack was right; it would be a long day. He turned toward another technician. "Extend the docking arms and broadcast a message telling our guests we are ready to receive them the moment the arms are deployed."

Outside the space station, near the middle of the saucer section, eight docking arms each a mile long and looking like scythes, extended from the station until they reached an angle of 45 degrees. The docking arms were slightly curved, just like the saucer section was, and from above it looked like the saucer just got eight blades slightly curved anticlockwise all around it. While this was happening near the middle of the saucer section, the same but much smaller docking arms extended from the hangar bay sections. Those were smaller than those above and they would be used for smaller ships.

At a certain distance from the station, a group of thirty plus ships started their slow approach toward the docking arms. There were no two ships looking the same as all were from different races all around the galaxy. The only ship that was recognizable was Katana's ship as this was something the Travelers were very interested in. While the ships were slowly docking on the various docking arms, three or four on each, other guests were being ferried from the planet below. The Terrans didn't want to have a stargate on the station, so they'd decided they would build a small outpost directly below the station on the planet's surface and then ferry people with small transport ships they had built just for the occasion. It was the only way for races without the ability to travel through space to reach the station.

"So, all these races are going to sell and buy stuff from others on the station, including us. How are we going to do that without a currency system?" Jack asked Woolsey while they were waiting their guests to disembark. He knew they must have come up with something, but he hadn't been informed, or probably the truth was he had skipped the memo with the pertinent information.

"Oh, but we have a currency system, and a very good one," Woolsey replied, smiling.

"Please do tell."

"Well, we took something from our history and made it better. You know how on Earth a hundred years ago you had our monetary system tied up with how much deposits of gold you had. Well, we did something similar here."

Jack thought about it, and he didn't get it, "What? Are you telling me people here have to deposit gold?"

"No, not just gold. We have found a study in Atlantis' database where the Lanteans have calculated how much different matter there is in this galaxy. This way we know how precious some materials are and how others aren't. For example, we know Neutronium is the least available metal in the galaxy, quickly followed by Naquadah, Trinium, Rhodium and Iridium, which makes their price skyrocket. We also calculated how many applications a certain material has, making it more or less valuable. For example Hydrogen is much more useful than Nitrogen, and even though you can find Hydrogen in much greater quantities, it is still more valuable than Nitrogen. It also takes time and energy to get it from water. This way we've given a nominal value to all matter in this galaxy."

"So what, somebody can deposit practically everything, and get money for it?"

"In essence, yes, but you must understand that if you bring a pound of Naquadah you get 78,000 credits for it, or 224,000 credits if you bring Neutronium, while if you bring a ton of Nitrogen, you get a tenth of a credit, which makes it very impractical to use as a deposit. We also set the top amount on how much of a specific material you can bring, so no, nobody can bring unlimited amounts of very common matter and get unlimited credits for it. Of course, everybody can bring as much Naquadah or Neutronium they want."

"Okay, I think I got it, but then what? We start dealing in those materials?"

"No, this is just a deposit to get credits that you can give back for the same deposit, if you didn't spend them of course. The deposit stays here in our vaults or in the vaults on the planet's surface if there is no more room here, but for now this isn't a problem. Every race can bring what they want. Their DNA is then scanned and they are given a certain amount of credits for it that is tied to their DNA. Everyone who wants to do business here must register with us. There is no physical money though, everything is only a bunch of numbers on a memory storage device, and for now the credits we give work only on the station. Everybody is given a bracelet tied to the wearer's DNA and other biometric parameters so even if it is stolen, you can't use it. Your DNA is actually the encryption key to access your account, at least that's what Doctor McKay told me. The bracelet allows you to input the amount you are ready to transfer to make a purchase through a small interface, and that's it."

"You are not worried there will be those who will force others to transfer them their money?"

"Of course, there is always a chance of that happening, but since every transaction is recorded with the information of the seller and buyer's accounts, plus the amount and what it was purchased, it's easy to report a crime and find the perpetrator. The transaction is then canceled and appropriate actions are taken against the perpetrator, usually resulting in the guilty party being banned from the station. The entire station is also monitored by countless sensors and cameras and since the bracelet doesn't work outside the station, it would be very difficult to commit a crime and not get caught. But isn't all this something you should already know?" Woolsey finished, looking straight at Jack with a wicked smile. He knew about Jack's dislike towards documents, reports and all paperwork in general.

"I was, but it just slipped my mind," Jack replied sheepishly. This was the first time he heard about all this and he wanted to change the subject quickly. "Shouldn't we get started with our part?"

Woolsey agreed. The various ambassadors and their entourage had most certainly already filled the large conference room on the Embassy Level and he now needed to greet them properly. Jack and Woolsey walked to the center of the CIC where there were several turbo-lifts. With the internal inertial dampeners the turbo-lift crossed the almost hundred floors in few seconds, depositing the two of them on the ground floor of the Embassy Level. The center of the floor, except for the turbo-lifts had a sizeable garden with a waterfall coming down from the entire height of the Embassy Level which was twenty floors high. Around them, on all sides, floor after floor were filled with balconies looking at the center where the two of them had exited. Everything had been designed this way. The central turbo-lifts would always bring you on the ground level of the CIC, Crew Accommodations, Embassy, Common Area, Guest Accommodations, Hospital, Hangar Bay or Engineering. From there you would have to take other smaller elevators on the far sides of the floor if you wanted to go up on some of the many floors in the distinct sections.

Woolsey and Jack walked in one of the many conference rooms on the first floor. Upon entry, they saw almost a hundred ambassadors with their escorts seated in separate booths, almost completely filling the entire conference room. Jack could quickly count there was almost four hundred people in the room, all waiting for the meeting to start. Woolsey and Jack walked toward the front of the conference room where the podium was. Woolsey stepped on the front of the podium while Jack took one of the four seats a few meters behind. The other three seats were filled with the same number of very important people. Before taking his seat, Jack nodded to Thor, Liam and Lya seating next to him.

Woolsey waited until Jack was comfortably seated and then he waited a little more while looking at the many different races seated in front of him. There were many, he had to admit it, and he didn't know most of them. On the left side, he could see most of the booths had been filled with humans from many worlds. There, he could see the Athosians, Travelers, Manarians, Genii, Daganians, Taranians, Sions, Latirans, Free Peoples of Riva, Tribes of Santhal, Harmony's people, Olesians, Hallonans and Galdarans, plus many more he didn't recognize. On the other side were the other races that had for a long time hidden their existence in this galaxy in fear of the Wraith. Now, they all stood here in front of him, waiting patiently for him to start his speech. So, he did.

"More than ten thousand years ago, a race had risen in this galaxy, a race we all know as the Wraith. This race began waging war against any and all other races in this galaxy they would encounter. While the humans were being hunted as their only source of food, the other races were hunted down, killed and almost brought to the brink of extinction, with the only real possibility if they wanted to survive being to flee and hide.

"At the time, there was only one race capable of opposing them; the Lanteans. They were the most advanced race in the galaxy and the only one who had the strength to stop the Wraith. For many years the Lanteans waged war with the Wraith, a bloody war with many losses on both sides. It was only until a hundred years later that the Lanteans were finally able to build a fleet strong enough to force the Wraith to retreat.

"The Lanteans were confident in their technological superiority, certain there was nothing the Wraith could do to change their fate, but the events that followed have showed the Lanteans were in fact overconfident, something that had cost them the war. The Wraith were able to destroy a few Lantean warships that had a small but very powerful device on board; the Potentia. Once acquired, the Wraith were able to improve their cloning process and shipbuilding tenfold and in a few years, the tide of the war turned in their favor."

"The Lantean fought bravely, but no matter how many Wraith ships they would destroy, more, many more would appear. With the constant increase of the Wraith forces, the Lanteans were forced to retreat to the last bastion of their civilization, their capital city Atlantis. For many years the city was besieged, every time being able to destroy the attackers, but only for more to come and begin the siege all over again."

"In the end, the Lanteans lost all hope, deciding to slumber their city on the bottom of the ocean and leave for the Milky Way galaxy through the stargate in hope they could, one day, become strong enough to return and face the Wraith once again. Unfortunately, this never came to pass."

"Approximately ten thousand years later, or better to say, six years ago, we the humans from Earth found a way to reach Atlantis once again. A small expedition was sent through the gate on an exploratory mission where we soon realized the city was running out of power and if that happened, the city would be completely flooded and all expedition members would die. Teams were sent on another planet, looking for ways to keep the city powered, or if not possible, to find a safe place where they could relocate leaving the city to its fate. It was then that the Terrans first met the Athosians, a race of humans native to the Pegasus galaxy," Woolsey said, turning to face Holland and nodding to him with a slight smile. He then turned to face the crowd again, continuing in a more somber tone. "Unfortunately, the Athosians weren't the only race the expedition members met that day for the first time. The Wraith came through the gate with their darts and quickly managed to capture several Athosians as well as a Terran before leaving the planet. In an attempt to rescue the captives, the Terrans followed them to the Wraith base. Even though they succeeded in saving the Athosians, the expedition members unknowingly set events in motion that would change the Pegasus galaxy in the years to come. By killing the Wraith queen, the Wraith began their awakening from their long sleep ahead of time."

"Even though the expedition members managed to save the Ancestral city by raising it from the bottom of the ocean, they found themselves stranded in a hostile galaxy with limited resources at their disposal, on many occasions surviving only with the help of allies in this galaxy."

"Eventually the situation changed, with the expedition finally being able to contact our home world," Woolsey turned to face the four members of the great races, "and with the help of allies, we turned the tide of war against the Wraith. We started an aggressive campaign, attacking the Wraith on any occasion we could find. Soon, a plan was formed where the humans from the Pegasus galaxy were to be relocated to another galaxy where the Wraith could not reach them. As a result, the Wraith soon found out their food source dwindling and had no other choice but to find a place where to hide and go back into hibernation."

"Although the Wraith are far from being defeated, we do believe they do not pose a threat anymore, not as much as they did for the previous ten thousand long years. This also made possible for many races that had to hide for so long to come out of hiding and join the rest of the races in the galaxy."

"This space station was built by us all, the Terrans and its closest allies, for a very important reason. What we are doing here today is an important first step toward interplanetary government; a... Federation if you will. This space station is a place where all the races in the Pegasus galaxy can meet and work together toward a common goal, a very noble common goal. A way to coexist peacefully and a way to solve our problems in a civilized manner without the need to fight among each other. A galaxy is a very big place, and there is no reason why we all shouldn't be able to live together and prosper in peace. Today, I welcome you all to this space station as a first step for a brighter future in which we live and prosper as one. Welcome."

Woolsey finished his lengthy speech, with all those present in the conference room clapping their hands. It was a very important step, and they all knew it.

The meeting continued through the scheduled procession, with the four great races being the first to sign the needed documents all present would eventually need to sign. After all, they all needed to be equal on the station.

First it was the turn for Jack who, while a large display showed the vaults on one of the lower floor having received the deposit of precious materials, had signed the documents with his DNA and other biometric parameters being stored in the system. Tons of Naquadah, Neutronium and Trinium as well as other materials like Platinum, Gold and Silver were stored in order to receive a billion credits and the small wristband to access their newly created account. Of course, the deposit was symbolic, with only a billion credits placed in the Terran account, something all four great races would do. In time, the races would eventually bring much more to deposit.

Jack took the small box with a specifically designed bracelet inside. The one Jack got was a mix of Trinum and Gold with an inscription written in Latin letters. Liam received his bracelet completely made of Naquadah and Platinum with an inscription in Ancient letters. Thor received one completely made in Neutronium with symbols made in the Asgard written language. The same was given to Lya, except it wasn't made from metals, but instead it was made from a material resembling leather. Of course it wasn't real leather since the Nox would never like to wear something made from a dead animal. Instead the bracelet was made from fibers from plants, readily available on the Nox world. Lya took the small box, intently looking at the content inside. She smiled, appreciating the thoughtfulness of the Terrans. The Nox had never valued precious metals more than for what their possible applications were.

One after the other, the many ambassadors proceeded through the same protocol, all receiving a bracelet that had been specifically designed for them while another, more common type of bracelet, had been designed to be given to private citizens who had come to the station. It had taken a lot of time to go through all the various races in the room, with introductions and talks, but eventually the meeting had finally ended.

Jack and Woolsey also wanted to go down in the Common Area where, by now, it should be crawling with people. As they reached the lowest level of the Common Area section, they saw they were right. A lot of people were buzzing around, many already having taken possession of prepaid spaces, where they could conduct their businesses. Some had turned these spaces into stores, while others into restaurants or bars. Everything had been prearranged in order for today to be the grand opening.

"Wow! On this floor alone I can see more than a thousand people," Jack said while looking at the crowd in front of him.

"I've told you there will be a lot of people being interested in what we are offering here," Woolsey replied, smiling.

"I see that. So, how does money go around? How _do they_ get their credits?"

"First we thought we would do the same as with the Embassies by just giving them credits for their deposit, but then we realized it would be too much work for us and we would also have difficulties checking to whom we are giving them since we don't know these people. So instead we have decided to give that job to their embassies. An embassy checks who the person is and it gives him the credits. How people compensate their embassies is not our concern, that's something between them. This way we also force the various embassies to check their own people since we told them they are responsible for them and if they do something illegal on the station they would be sanctioned as well. This way we believe they won't allow anyone to come here who they know are criminals on their planet," Woolsey explained.

"That does sound better than the first option," Jack replied.

"I agree. I'm certain we will have no problems here," Woolsey replied.

Even before Jack could give Woolsey a stern look, not approving of what he had just said, two aliens from different races, walking less than fifty meters from them, brushed one another. They turned facing each other, yelling some not very flattering words. Soon, the two individuals started pushing each other. Several individuals from their two respective races saw what was going on and decided to join in. It didn't take long before a brawl ensued with fists flying everywhere in front of the two dumbfounded humans. Terran security forces jumped in trying to split the two distinct races apart. One of the security personnel got a punch from a reptile looking green alien, sprawling to the floor very much hurt, especially to his ego. The other security guards looked at each other knowingly, before taking out their stun weapons and shooting the seven people who were still fighting. Security guards on the entire station had only stun weapons at their disposal as no lethal weapons were allowed here. On the station there was a military presence under the command of Colonel Lorne, but they would never be employed in situations like the one that had just transpired. They were here to protect the station from much bigger threats.

As the fight had abruptly ended, since all those involved were now being dragged to the brig, Jack gave Woolsey the stern look he had tried to give before the fight began, "I can't believe you just said that!"

"Neither can I, but I still believe there won't be… _many_ incidents like this one," Woolsey replied.

"You know, in my line of work, and now in yours too, I learned how hope is great, but preparing for the worst is much better. I learned that Murphy guy was right all along."

Woolsey shrugged. He knew Jack was right, "Don't worry, I always plan for the worst, but I also think now I have other duties I need to attend to."

"Me too, I still have to visit Weir in another endless meeting and then go back to the Milky Way galaxy to probably many more endless meetings and… paperwork," Jack said shivering at the thought.

Both men took off for the turbo-lifts. While Jack went in one, going down to the hangar bay, Woolsey took another straight up to the CIC Level.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Jaffa Planet  
**_Stardate: 1968.41_

A hyperspace window tore space open, spewing a single Tel'tak. The moment the ship exited hyperspace it cloaked in order to conceal its arrival. The two pilots were transporting a precious cargo the Lucians wanted delivered in one of the cities on the planet. The pilots didn't ask what it was, but since the last ten times they had run errands for their masters it was Kassa, it was easy to deduce what the cargo was even this time.

Pushing forward toward the planet, the two pilots noticed the planet now had a Ha'tak in orbit, something that wasn't here the last time. They would have to be careful this time. If there was a Ha'tak in orbit, there was a great chance the situation on the ground had changed as well and not for the better. They also knew the Jaffa didn't like the contraband of Kassa and if they got caught, well, let's just say they would rather be captured by the Terrans than the Jaffa. There were even rumors that many who got caught by the Terrans actually thought of it more like liberation from slavery than punishment. Something that they definitely couldn't say if they got caught by the Jaffa… thought one of the pilots, shivering.

As the small ship went closer to the planet, confident in their cloak to protect them against detection, the two pilots forgot that a ship entering the atmosphere would create turbulence that a vigil Jaffa commander aboard the Ha'tak ship in orbit could easily detect; something that was just about to happen.

The first sign that something went wrong was when four gliders exited the much larger ship in orbit on a clear intercept course toward the Tel'tak. The pilots pushed forward, deeper into the planet's atmosphere. Failure wasn't an option when the Lucians were involved and the pilots knew that fact very well.

The four gliders started their relentless fire against the ship, but with the ship still being cloaked, it wasn't that easy to score a hit. Unfortunately, for the people aboard the Tel'tac at least, if the gliders poured enough plasma bolts in the general area where they believed the ship was, sooner or later, they were bound to score a hit. Suddenly, the ship shook as it got hit by a plasma bolt, only to be hit again and again as now the cloak wasn't working anymore. Still, the pilots continued toward their target thinking that once they landed they could maybe escape capture; somehow.

As the ship reached an altitude of three hundred meters, just above the city in question, a small sensor inside the large cargo box detected it had reached its intended target. Instantly, the small device sent a short impulse to a much larger one, a much deadlier one, inside the same casing.

On the ground Jaffa looked at the approaching Tel'tak chased by four gliders in close pursuit, asking what was happening. Their question will remain without an answer for them as a bright flash of light, quickly followed by a massive wave of pressure and heat pulverized them all to the molecular level, the same as the rest of the city.

* * *

**Lucian Alliance  
**_Stardate: 1971.89_

In the same room as the last time, the same group of Lucians met again. The difference though this time was that silence was louder than anything else. Everybody was looking at their leader Odai sitting in his chair without moving a muscle or without looking anyone in particular. He was angry, everybody knew that, but what they didn't know was how angry he really was or what he was going to do.

Odai slowly rose from his seat, taking a walk around the table and the captains sitting there.

"So, you didn't like what I ordered the last time we saw each other and you decided to attack the Jaffa without my knowledge… or approval. Well, nicely done you dimwits! Instead of thinking that, maybe, I knew something more than you did, you took the matter into your own hands and screwed us all."

"The attack on the Jaffa was warranted, and you know it," Leto replied, fed up of being lectured.

"Really. And what would you say if I told you that, while you bunch of idiots were planning an unsanctioned attack at a civilian target, I was gathering important information? Information that shows the Jaffa are under the impression that we have attacked three of their planets with the Tok'ra symbiote poison and killed more than two hundred thousand Jaffa?"

"We didn't attack the Jaffa with any poison," Leto replied, puzzled by the news.

"I know that, you cretin! If you listened to my words, you would know I said how they are _under the impression_, which means somebody set us up. And now thanks to you worthless amoebas, there is not one chance in hell anyone in the entire universe will believe us if we say we've been set up."

This time, even Leto remained silent.

"You know, I don't ask a lot from you. I actually need only two things. I need obedience, and I need you to have just a little more brain than all those brainless grunts you have under you. And what do you do? In one fell swoop you show me that you _can't _follow orders and that you have even less brain than a monkey."

Again, Leto said nothing.

"So, the question now stands. What do I do with you bunch of morons?" Odai said, still making his round around the table. "I have the slight feeling you think if all of you were complicit in this, I won't be able to shoot you all because I need you. Well that may be true, but that doesn't mean all of you will get a get out free card," Odai said just as he stopped behind Leto.

Leto's eyes widened, understanding exactly what Odai's last words meant. He understood just as a bullet went right through his head.

As the rest of the captains around the table shrunk even further in their chairs, Odai continued his walk. "And to the rest of you, don't think I can't make it without _two_ less captains, the same way as with one less. It will be up to you to show me in the days to come that you are not that second captain that I _can_ do without."

"Now that this matter is finally solved, I want to hear ideas on who is behind the attack on the Jaffa and how they've succeeded in blaming us. Also knowing _why_ they, whoever they are, have chosen us to be blamed would be nice too."

The room remained silent.

"I see," Odai said taking a deep breath. Choosing captains was never an easy thing to do. You didn't want idiots to run your empire, but you didn't want to have smart ones either. Those tend to sooner or later stab you in the back and take the throne for themselves. Still, he thought he had chosen well, but apparently he was wrong. Except for one, all others were complete tools, unable to make a smart decision even if their lives depended on it; just like in this case, because their lives _did_ depend on what kind of answer they would give or not give. There was one among the captains though that Odai thought was smart, maybe even too smart. At first glance Lucius looked like a retard, barely having spoken two words in the last two year, but if you looked at how he was running his business, you quickly understood the man knew what he was doing. Odai also didn't like the quiet type; he actually hated the quiet type. They as well tend to stab you in the back without saying a single word. He also didn't like the coldness he saw in Lucius, a calculated coldness. Not that anyone in the room, he included, was much better, but that coldness and detachment he saw in Lucius was something that made him shiver at times. Somehow, he believed Lucius was… different.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aschen Prime  
**_Stardate: 1984.17_

The usual group of very important Aschen was gathered once more in the same room as all the times before. Inside the room, the only Aschen known was Mollem. He was the one to start the meeting.

"We received encouraging news from our spy in the Lucian's ranks. It appears the war between them and the Jaffa will proceed as we planned."

"We haven't anticipated the Lucian leader going against it and instead trying to find information about why the Jaffa attacked their warehouse. We didn't account for that variable."

"True, but the Lucian captains took care of that problem when they attacked a Jaffa world. There is no turning back now."

"Perhaps. Still, Odai Ventrell looks like a man who uses his head. I don't believe he will stop searching for the truth."

"Our spy will keep a close eye on him and if necessary he will eliminate the threat and take control of the Lucian Alliance."

"It is preferable if the Lucian Alliance is not directly controlled by us. If one of ours is the leader, we become more exposed."

"This is only a contingency plan if Odai finds the truth, only a remote possibility if a might add."

"True enough. We have covered our tracks very carefully. There is no trace that leads back to us."

"What about the Terrans? From a few Jaffa under our control we have found the Terrans have already asked them if they need assistance. Will they join the fight?"

"Eventually; it's possible. But for now, the Jaffa want to fight the war alone, exactly as we predicted they would."

"Even alone the Jaffa are stronger than the Lucian Alliance. The war could be over very soon; too soon."

"Through our spy we will help the Lucians if need be. The war between them must last as long as possible, preferably until both are destroyed."

"I agree. What about the Ori? Do we have any more intel on them?"

"Very little. We know they are preparing and that, when they are ready, they will strike with whatever they have accumulated in these two years. I also worked on the probability of the Terrans being able to win against the Ori and I have extrapolated what kind of force they could have accumulated in these two years. The probability of the Terrans winning is small."

"How can you be so certain from so little data?"

"While I believe the Terrans are capable of defending Earth and maybe their colonies, they do not possess the necessary numbers to patrol the entire galaxy. Which means, slowly but surely, the Ori will make progress on other planets until only the Terran territories remain."

"Intriguing. Does this include us too?"

"It does. If the Ori are smart, and there is no reason to believe otherwise, and if they have learned their lesson two years ago, the Ori will simply leave the Terrans alone and go conquer the rest of the galaxy. I believe the Jaffa will be among the first to be attacked, or one of the other worlds with a large human population. Eventually the Ori will find out about us as well and we will probably be annihilated since they will quickly realize we are never going to worship them."

"In your assessment, did you find a way to save us?"

"I did; two actually. The first is to pretend to worship them, but this can work for only a short period of time."

"And the second?"

"If we are attacked, we ask the Terrans for help. Both options have flaws though. The first as I stated is only short term and the second relies on the Terrans' benevolence, something we cannot count on with any certainty."

"I agree. Can we increase our planetary defenses?"

"We have already done that. More and we will have to stop building anything else, like ships. The problem is that I believe we do not possess the necessary technology to face the Ori if they come en masse. Maybe we can succeed in winning against few of their ships, but not against a larger fleet and I believe the Ori have spent these two years waiting for that exact reason."

"Have we at least been able to find a cure against their virus? Did the samples Earth provided us help?"

"It did. We are now more than certain we can devise a vaccine against the Prior's virus with minimal casualties for our population even if such virus is spread directly on our planet."

"How minimal?"

"Less than .1 percent mortality rate."

"That is still fourteen million lives."

"It is, but this is the worst case scenario and only if the virus is deployed on our planet on multiple locations at once. In reality I believe the mortality rate would be much lower."

"Still, I want you to create a group with the only job of finding a way to fight the Ori, their priors and their followers. I cannot place the fate of our race in the hands of the Terrans or to pretend to believe the Ori are gods and worship them."

The group quickly wrapped up their meeting, with many questions still remaining unanswered. The possibility of an alliance with the Terrans was a long shot, they all knew that, and they also knew they could not possibly win against the Ori. Yet, the Aschen game was to make other races fight each other until so weakened that they would be the only remaining power in the galaxy. If they can manage to help the Terrans enough to fight the Ori on equal footing, those two races could fight each other forever while they remain unscathed, the same as with the Lucians and the Jaffa. It was a dangerous game to play, but, apparently, the only one available to them at the moment.

* * *

**Galactic Void  
**_Stardate: 1969.17_

Traveling through hyperspace at cruising speed, the Atlas was slowly making his way to the Pegasus galaxy. Thinking how, soon, this form of travel across galaxies would be a thing of the past, Colonel Gibbons wanted for this long journey to be his last. Liam was in the last stage of creating a network of supergates that would connect the four galaxies, allowing for ships to cross the vast distances between galaxies in a blink of an eye instead of the three weeks it now took to reach the Pegasus. It was the worst part of his job. His ass was hurting on how much time he had spent in his chair doing nothing except watching the blue hyperspace dimension through the frontal view. Gibbons actually started believing that watching hyperspace for longer periods had some kind of hypnotic influence of sorts. It had happened a few times now that he had simply lost the notion of time.

"Sir, I'm picking a time dilation field two thousand light years ahead of us," the sensor officer said, he too looking bored.

"Did you just say time dilation field?" the colonel asked, puzzled at what it could be. Especially here, still many light years outside the Pegasus galaxy.

"Yes sir. The distortion is small and I have no more information than that. We would have to drop out of hyperspace near it to get a better reading."

The colonel thought about it and he couldn't find a reason why they shouldn't check it out, especially since he was so bored that anything, no matter how small or insignificant, was better than doing… _nothing_, "Alright. Helm, drop us out of hyperspace ten light minutes away from the distortion."

It took them a few more minutes before the ship reached the disturbance. They dropped out of hyperspace, immediately using their sensors at full strength to get a better reading. The puzzling thing was that the distortion was moving at incredible speed towards them.

"Sir, it is a ship traveling at near the speed of light," the sensor officer said.

That was something that got the colonel's attention, "Is the time dilation field the result of the ship traveling at such speed?" Gibbons asked, remembering some scientist explaining to him the effect travel at such speeds would have.

"Yes sir," the officer answer, just as the ship passed them in a blink of an eye. "They have just passed us."

"Can we chase them?" the Colonel asked, the same moment he understood how stupid that must have sounded. There was no way they could chase a ship moving at near the speed of light.

"No sir, but the ship has started slowing down."

"Alright then. Helm I want you to follow that ship as much as we can," the colonel ordered. If they were stopping, it would be rude to just leave now.

It had taken almost half an hour, but eventually the ship managed to slow down. Actually, the colonel had to order them to make a small jump through hyperspace in order to get ahead of the ship because it had gained so much that it would have taken them hours to reach it at sublight speed, even after they had lowered their speed.

As the ship once more passed them at still higher speed then theirs, a hologram appeared on the bridge of the ship. It was a woman wearing the usual Alterran white robes.

"Greetings, I'm Captain Helia of the Lantean warship Tria," the woman said.

"Hello. I'm Colonel Gibbons, commander of the Terran battlecruiser Atlas," the captain replied.

"Terran?"

"Yes, we are from Earth. Or Avalon if you will," the colonel answered, not knowing what name would jog the woman's memory.

There was a lot of questions swirling in her head, but there was a more pressing matter she needed to address first, "We need assistance. Our hyperdrive malfunctioned and we had no other choice but to continue our journey with only our sublight engines at our disposal. Can you provide us with transportation?"

"We can. We are on our way to Atlantis," the captain said.

"Thank you. We would appreciate it." the woman replied, her hologram disappearing from the bridge the next moment.

Colonel Gibbons smiled. They were apparently going to meet some living and breathing Lanteans.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appriciated.**


	5. The End of a Tyrant

**Author's note:** Well, since I received a few comments about being an evil, evil person by leaving a cliffhanger at the end of the last chapter, as well as a wish that I could turn into a Salerian, I decided to show my benevolent side and post this chapter ahead of time. Just don't get use to it. It's still a lot to publish 10000 words every week. Also, I have a lot of reviews that need to be answered so, be ready for a lot of reading.

Also, I would like to apologize for using the name Tantalus in the first book instead of Heliopolis. Probably it got stuck with me because the episode where they first get to Heliopolis was named 'The Torment of Tantalus'. So, from now on I'm using Heliopolis for the place where the Second Great Alliance was formed.

**Nagato:** As you can see, no need to wait 'till Friday.

**stormwolf3710:** it doesn't look like Babylon 5 nor like DS9. As I mentioned in the last chapter it looks like a mushroom and you can search for 'Earth Spacedock' on the Internet and you'll get how it looks like. As far as the Lanteans goes, asses always stay asses.

**Senrab Nomis:** They are not underestimating the Terrans. The Terrans, even with the other races, are in real trouble when the Ori are concerned. I think you have the same problem in your story. If you don't know where the enemy is or you can't hurt them back home, no matter how strong you are, you can only be on the defensive, with no chance of winning the war. Prices for normal stuff would be around the value of the dollar at the beginning of the 20th century. So a million is still worth something.

**Rudy Pena:** not good, I'm afraid.

**Nano101:** Thanks for the info. Already changed.

**Tamed Scoundrel:** I'm not sure if I would characterize the process of getting hydrogen from a gaseous giant an easy thing. Keep in mind that most races in Pegasus are not technologically advanced enough to get into space, much less being able to extract hydrogen from such a planet. Also, whatever method you use, you extract everything the giant's atmosphere has, so you don't get pure hydrogen. Maybe to the Terrans it would be easy, but for the rest of the humans and other less advanced races, not so much. The price of hydrogen is also higher because the gas can be used as fuel, which means you can create power plants or propulsion systems, something less advanced races would be very interested in. Not to mention nuclear fusion from heavy hydrogen. The value is not only how much of a certain material you can get, but also how useful the material is.

**Andriabow:** more coming right away :)

**Epi:**

**_Why not have Earth countries colonize other worlds?_**

The short answer is… because it's not a very good idea.

Let me now try to explain why. The first problem is logistics. We all know that you can't have more than one gate on a planet, which means Terrania would have to re-purpose its gate for colonization. I think that, for an organization that has the job to deal with extraterrestrial diplomacy and the protection of Earth, losing the gate is unacceptable. The second problem is that, while the stargate is a marvelous (if not fictional) device, it is not meant as a device for hundreds of nations to transfer millions of people and materials to and from dozens upon dozens of colonies. You would simply get a bottleneck. It would also become a security risk for Earth. With dozens and dozens of colonies out there, who's to say some race could not get to one of this planets and force someone to give them their access codes to Earth, and once Earth is dialed shove a nuclear bomb through.

While this logistical problems would be crippling at best, they are not even the main reason why this wouldn't work, or better to say why it's something the Terrans would never want. The idea behind the Terran Alliance and the Terrans is to, _slowly_ (not to destroy Earth's fragile economy and stability) give Earth advanced technologies and to one day unite all nations on Earth under one banner. As more and more people are joining the Terrans, one day, they will inevitably become a race in their own right, with the final goal of everyone on Earth becoming a Terran (eventually, after many years of course). Allowing colonization of other worlds to Earth's nations would result in Earth being fractured even more than it already is. There would not only be more than two hundred countries on Earth. There would be two hundred more colonies on other planets as well. Also, we know from our past that, sooner or later, colonies tend to ask for independence. The most notable example is how the US came to be… and of course the American Revolutionary War that ensued because of their wish to not have to pay taxes to Great Britain. Also colonization has a bad connotation throughout our history. Colonies had usually been founded as a mean of exploitation. Why else would you want a colony if not to get more resources from far lands?

You also mentioned having five countries colonizing a single planet. So, I then have to ask, which country you think should get the gate on its soil and which colonies should have to cross half the planet into foreign territory to use it. How would you get equality among colonies with only one gate?

And finally, I'm not sure how this would even help the Chinese problem since China is not part of the Terran Alliance, which means they would be even more excluded, at least until they join.

_**Why the F-302c codename Viper doesn't have the warp drive instead of a hyperdrive?**_

Because it was developed before they knew about warp drives. The vipers in the last chapters were already in use, which means they had been designed, tested and built before that. They were designed before Sam got to look at the probe's FTL drive. There will beother things that use that type of FTL drive though, not to worry.

_**Why not use Lantean satellites to defend the space station?**_

Maybe they will in the future, but as I mentioned in the last chapter, for now all resources go to building more ships. What would you want more, a battleship built or a satellite that you can't move? Keep in mind that they have a lot of enemies, and the dream Liam had, makes them build as much warships as they can.

_**Woolsey warning them about buying and selling stuff?**_

There is not much difference in giving them technology directly or teaching them, at least as far as the incident on Sarita is concerned. As far as I know, the Saritans used the power source given by the Tollans to wage war on their planet. They used it like a bomb of mass destruction and destroyed their planet in the process. So, what's the difference if they know how to build it or they got the device directly? In both cases the problem is for what they used it and not how they came into possession of the said device.

Also, there is the problem of having a free market, which means without having the Terrans interfering. Many races would maybe agree to sell someone a hyperdrive, for example, if they knew the race wouldn't be able to build it later by reverse engineering the device (they simply don't know how it works). This way, every time they need a new hyperdrive they need to come back and buy it again. When you give somebody the underlying knowledge on how something works, they won't come back again.

Also, think of the problem of understanding a technology that is far ahead of you. Imagine a case where you go to the past, maybe a hundred years, and give the specs and knowledge on how our current computers work to your grand-grand-grandfather. He can't do anything with that knowledge. A processor inside a computer is made from more than fifty million transistors, and the technology behind building it is so far ahead of him that he or anyone else on the planet of that era doesn't even have anything that can produce them. In the same way, a more primitive race can get knowledge on how a hyperdrive works, but it is a completely different story if they can actually build the damn thing, which means it is useless for them if they want to venture into space right now and not in twenty years.

_**Will other advanced races appear in the story?**_

Some will, but unfortunately if I don't want to drag this story for the next several years, I simply can't have all those races mentioned in the second book. In that case, the second book would also turn into a bible-size project with no end in sight. Currently, I'm writing chapter 22 which is somewhere around 200.000 words of the book. AND I'M NOT ANYWHERE CLOSER TO THE END. Also, I think that those who read my story would sooner or later get fed up if I don't make any real progress with the plot while I mention every single race in the universe.

For now, other races are on their own when planetary defenses are concerned. The Terrans are always ready to send a ship, or even a fleet if necessary, but building massive defenses to other worlds is not something they can afford. As I mentioned before, what would you choose? Having more battleships built or instead, the same number of satellites to protect other planets without the possibility to move them if needed? You can't have both.

I hope I was able to answer your questions.

**romanhellhound:** Thanks. I don't like stories that follow everything in the exact way as the show happened, but I don't like disregarding events from the show either.

Well, that's it as far as answers are concerned.

**Thanks to my beta, and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well.**

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Langara  
**_Stardate: 1988.42_

Jack and General Anderson exited through the event horizon of the active stargate in the freshly built Langaran Headquarter. The large room was different from the concrete based, bunker style rooms they were accustomed to find on the other end of the wormhole. Instead, this room had smooth white walls, intertwined by metallic beams and other decorations that made it much more appealing to the naked eye than the usual bunker. It had been a joint effort the Terrans and the Langarans had worked on for more than a year now, one in the endless number of new constructions that now could be found on Langara.

The Langarans weren't lucky people, not if their record was any indication. The Langarans had first lived under the constant threat of war between their three nations, only to be attacked by Anubis and then by the Ori, every time with great losses and massive damage to their infrastructure. The Terrans, in complete agreement with the other three great races, had decided that enough was enough and that the Langarans deserve better than the bad luck that was apparently following them.

In the last two years, the Terrans have given the Langarans many technological improvements, had helped them rebuild their infrastructure and had provided them with the necessary knowledge to start their space program. The space program had finally taken its momentum in the last year as a joint project of all three nations on the planet, but even here Jack could see the still existing tensions between them. The biggest indication of that fact was the concurrent building of three ships, manned by personnel from each nation separately. It didn't matter that building three ships at the same time had pushed their program months or almost a year back, the Langarans had built three ships and all of them were slightly different. The changes in the ships were mostly internal, but there were enough of them to know the three nations could not come up with the same design, each deciding to add something of their own for no good reason. Of course, building three different ships is always more difficult than building identical ones, and Jack didn't like it. They were still three separate nations in many ways, too many to believe they were a united race.

As Jack thought about the still existing problems the Langarans were facing, Jonas Quinn walked to greet them. "Councilor O'Neill, General Anderson, welcome to Langara and our new Stargate Headquarter."

"Jonas, lose the Councilor part… and the O'Neill part," Jack said a little lost on what he was trying to say. "I told you to call me Jack."

"Sure Jack," Jonas said, smiling and shaking his hand before doing the same with Anderson.

"That's better," Jack said, looking around the room. "So, I see it is finally finished."

"Yes, we finished the complex last week."

"Nice. Did you already start sending teams through the gate?"

"No, not yet. We are planning to send our first team next week. We still need to test the GDO system you gave us. We want to be sure it works properly before we send a team through."

"Good thinking. Teams usually don't like getting splashed on the Iris when they gate back."

"No, I don't think they would," Jonas replied, smiling. Jonas turned to face Anderson, just before giving him a thick folder. "Here's all the information you requested."

"Thank you Mr. Quinn, but I was hoping I would be able to speak with General Felon in person," Anderson said while taking the folder.

"I wasn't aware of that, but I don't think there will be a problem to arrange a meeting. Is there something in particular why you need him?"

"I just wanted to discuss with him how the Ori infestation is going so far, that's all. Reports are great, but I like more hearing about it from the man in charge," Anderson replied.

Even after almost two years since the Ori had lost the battle over Langara, there was still many Ori followers present on the planet's surface. In those two years, the Langarans had systematically been clearing their planet from the enemy soldiers. There were still smaller groups of followers hiding, mostly east of Kelowna and the Andari Federation where the Ori had landed. They were mostly hiding in the woods and they needed to capture them all if they wanted for normalcy to return to that region.

After the majority of the enemy troops had been captured and relocated to another planet, Anderson and the 3rd Terran Army stationed on the planet had been ordered to return home, but Anderson still liked coming to the planet and talking to General Felon, discussing how things were progressing while drinking a beer or two with a friend.

Jonas nodded to a Langaran, an assistant from the looks of him, who immediately approached the group, "Please help General Anderson find General Felon."

"Of course. General, if you'd please follow me," the assistant said to Anderson, the two of them quickly moving out of the gateroom.

"So, Jonas, when are we leaving?" Jack asked, impatient to get the ball rolling.

"We can ring to the ship immediately. I think we'll be ready to go in half an hour," Jonas said motioning to Jack to follow him to the ring platform.

Two corridors from the gateroom and they were in a small room with a ring platform in the middle. Quickly stepping inside, they were teleported to the ship waiting in orbit. While walking through the various corridors inside the ship on their way to the bridge, Jack thought how this ship very much resembled the Prometheus.

"So, is everything in order with the ship?" Jack said a little worried.

"You are worried if the ship is capable of reaching Heliopolis in one piece, aren't you?" Jonas said, smiling.

"I don't have a lot of good memories that involve prototype ships," Jack said, thinking of Prometheus' first voyage.

"The Prometheus wasn't even finished when it had his first voyage. This ship had been completed a month ago and since then it was tested extensively. You don't have to worry about getting…"

"Nah-ah, don't say it!" Jack said, interrupting Jonas. "Every time someone says everything is going to be fine, I almost get killed!"

"Fine, I won't say it."

"Good. So, how do you like your new job?"

"It's great. Being in charge of this program is something I always wanted, and since the political wrangling and mistrust has somewhat quieted down, I really like working on our space program now."

"Did it? I mean… the political tension between your countries? Did it really settle down?"

"It has, mostly thanks to you. The talks about making a formal alliance between us, but only if we are united, helped a lot."

"And yet, you still had to build three ships at the same time and not one by one, and each ship is manned by people from their separate nation instead of a mixed crew as it should have been."

"I know, I know. Not everything is resolved on our planet. There is still the need to split everything in three, but that is only a minor problem."

"I don't know Jonas. To me, it looks like you're still thinking like three separate nations and not like one," Jack said. The Langarans were trying to create something similar to what the Terran Alliance has become. One entity completely separated from the rest, with no single nation having any saying on how it should be run, but if Jonas had been forced to make three ships each run by people from one of the three nations separately, it looked like the influence of the three nations was still strong.

"Well, it's not perfect, but we'll get there. It will just take more time."

"I hope you're right Jonas, because if you're not, you'll get sucked up in politics that will prevent you from doing your job, and that's... going out there," Jack said, waving with his hands to show where the 'out there' was.

As they talked, the two of them had reached the bridge where the ship's captain and many other members of the crew were eagerly awaiting their arrival before they could leave Langara's orbit. With them on board, it was time to leave for Heliopolis. This would be the first voyage of the ship and since Jonas had been invited to attend to the second year anniversary of the formation of the Second Great Alliance, they thought it would be good if they could catch two birds in one go, with Jack having been invited to witness their first interplanetary voyage.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Atlantis  
**_Stardate: 1989.22_

Weir was excited. They had found living and breathing Lanteans, lost in the void between galaxies and they would soon be brought here. Weir liked the idea of being able to talk to people that were alive when the Lantean-Wraith War was still news. The thing they could learn from them was almost impossible to imagine.

As Weir pondered over the repercussions of the encounter that was about to happen, a beam of light deposited Captain Helia and three other Lanteans straight into the gateroom. Weir moved to greet the new arrivals when Captain Helia stepped forward and a small pedestal rose from the floor, just in front of the gate. She placed her hand on the pedestal, concentrating as she did so.

Near Weir, the holographic representation of Atlantis appeared, "Oh, no you won't!"

Those words startled both Weir and the Lantean woman in front of the pedestal.

"Won't what?" Weir asked, now having the slight feeling that this woman had tried something she shouldn't have.

"She was trying to override our security system, blocking anyone else's access to all primary systems," Atlantis said with an angry expression.

Having heard those words, not only Weir, but also several guards in the room changed their demeanor very quickly, something Helia picked up immediately. This was not going as she had planned. "What is that?" the woman said, looking at Atlantis' hologram.

"What is she, can wait. Now I'm more inclined to ask _you _what you were trying to do," Weir asked with a clearly accusing tone.

"I… I was accessing the city's system to transfer control over to me," Helia said, not sure of what to expect, especially since she could see the guards with their hands on their holstered guns, which were not stun weapons as far as she could discern. This really wasn't going as she had thought it would.

"Really? And why would you _try_ to do such a thing?" Weir again asked in an accusatory tone.

"We are the Ancestors. We are the legitimate owners of this city. I was simply taking back control of what's ours," the woman replied calmly, but she also knew the chances of that happening were now slim to none.

"First of all, you're not the Alterrans. You are Lanteans. And secondly, even if you _think _the city belongs to you, this is not the way to get it back, especially after we were so kind to help you return here," Weir said, pissed through the roof at how their first contact had turned out.

The woman also noticed they knew who they were, specifically that they were not the Ancients. _'This could be a problem,'_ she thought. "I apologize for that. I thought it would be best if I took control of the city immediately. It would be easier for you to leave the city if you knew you didn't have control of the city anymore."

"We will see about that. For now, you'll be escorted to your temporary quarters and you will stay there until I say otherwise," Weir explained what was going to happen next, nodding to the guards to escort them.

Without a word, the woman and the other three Lanteans followed the guards out of the gate room, the same moment as John entered. He approached Weir while looking at the four Lanteans being escorted by the guards. "What's going on?"

"Can you believe this? They came here with the intention of taking Atlantis from us without saying a word."

"They did what?" Sheppard asked.

"That woman tried to access the city through this thing here," Weir said, pointing at the pedestal in front of the gate, clueless on how to make it go back inside the floor. "I didn't even know there was something like that here, but thankfully Atlantis blocked her before she could rewrite our security protocols."

"That's not good. Do they even have claim over the city?" John asked.

"I don't know, but the way she tried to do it, it simply pisses me off," Weir replied.

"That's true. Maybe we will need to ask the real owner of the city?" Sheppard added.

"Who?"

"Liam. He's the only Alterran I know of and since his race built the city, he's the rightful owner... I think. Or are we going to look at this more from a finders keepers perspective?"

"I don't know, I have to think about this, but your idea to call Liam is actually a good one. At least we should see what he thinks about this little problem we're having here."

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Kheb  
**_Stardate: 1997.22_

Oma had spent thousands of years trying to teach whoever decided to come to Kheb about enlightenment, all in an attempt to help them ascend to a higher plane of existence. Still, nobody had ever reached the stage to ascend on their own, not without her final push. She still needed to help them shed their physical body when the time came. During that long period, Oma helped ascend several individuals who she believed had at least understood the real meaning of what she was preaching.

The other ascended beings weren't too happy with Oma and with what she was doing, warning her on many occasions that she should not help others achieve something they believe should be reached alone and without anyone's aid. It was after all, the ultimate achievement. No matter how much they'd tried to warn Oma, she'd decided not to listen and for hundreds of years everything went well without incident but then, Anubis came. He tricked her into believing she was ascending the host and not the Goa'uld. The others had of course been outraged with what had happened, knowing that such a parasite should never, ever, be allowed to remain in the higher plane of existence. But, in their infinite wisdom, they also believed how they had found the perfect way to punish Oma for what she had allowed to happened.

A short discussion with the newly ascended Goa'uld let him know that he wasn't allowed to use any of his powers that he had inherited when he had ascended and that if he did, he would be cast back into the mortal realm. He didn't like it, thinking how all his efforts had been for nothing, but, if nothing else, you could always say he was a very pragmatic parasite. He'd decided to make good of the situation he was in as best as he could. Oma's punishment became apparent almost immediately as she had found out what Anubis was planning to do with the lower plane and all its inhabitants. She would have to watch the atrocities the bastard would commit without being able to cast him down, at least as long as he didn't break the rules that had been imposed on him.

Liam had spent almost a month and a half on Kheb. That witch that was supposedly his friend had made him wait on the planet for the entire time without talking to him even once. A few times, he had yelled to the air, trying to let her know that he could sense her presence and how all this was pointless, but still, the witch had let him wait. Liam had spent that time training, mentally and physically. There wasn't much else he could do on this boring planet anyway. Not that he minded using this time as a sort of meditative reprieve. Here, he had been able to collect his thoughts and even make some good plans for the future, but if Oma didn't show up soon, he would have to leave. The rest of the Universe didn't simply stop just because he did.

"Finally! I always thought that I'm a very patient man, but this was starting to look ridiculous even to me," Liam said as he felt Oma's presence behind him.

"Liam, why haven't you left already? There is nothing for you here, and you definitely don't need my help to ascend. You're probably having more problems staying in the lower plane than ascending," Oma replied, thinking about the last time they saw each other, when he for a brief moment became the biggest yo-yo in the universe, bouncing between planes of existence like a madman.

Liam turned to face his old friend, "Nice to see you too Oma."

Oma sighed, "Why are you here Liam?"

"I was looking for a certain individual that's usually not that hard to miss, but about two years ago he'd suddenly disappeared. Coincidentally, you disappeared at the same time as he did."

"Why are you looking for him?" Oma asked again, still not understanding what he was doing here.

"Before we talk about that, I'm really interested in finding out how did you convince the others to let you lock him up on this planet?"

"I asked," Oma replied simply.

"And they agreed? That's strange?"

"Liam, please stop asking stupid question and tell me why you want to see him?"

"Hey! You made me wait for more than a month!"

"Sorry, I thought that even you wouldn't be so stubborn to wait for that long."

"Well, you were wrong."

"I can see that."

Both of them stopped talking for a long time before Liam decided to say something, "Look, I just want to ask him something, that's it."

"What?"

"Not until you let him come out of… wherever he's hiding. Why won't you at least for once trust me without the third degree?"

Oma was angry. What the hell was going on here? She sighed in resignation and a moment later a fat dude came out from the house.

He slowly approached them, "Who are you?"

"Hi, I'm Liam," Liam replied, happy he had finally achieved something.

Anubis walked to where Liam was standing, stopping only a few meters from him. "Should that mean something to me?"

"Probably not… who cares. The important thing is that I have been looking for you for a very, very long time and you can't even imagine how happy I am I was finally able to find you."

Anubis didn't know what was going on here, but the last two years or so hadn't been a picnic for him either and any distraction was better than nothing. He turned toward Oma, "Who's this?"

"An old friend of mine," Oma replied also annoyed by the whole situation.

Anubis turned again toward Liam, "So, what do you want?"

"This," Liam said, pushing a button on his wristband. Suddenly, four orbs appeared around Anubis. The devices activated immediately and a bubble formed around him.

Anubis wasn't impressed. He turned toward Oma, "What is he trying to do?"

"I have no idea, but I think he will tell us soon."

Liam smiled, "Well, this bubble has just trapped Anubis."

Anubis laughed hard. "You can't trap an ascended being," Anubis said, sure of it, but he was also starting to look at the four orbs around him with suspicion and his laughter was slowly faltering. Oma as well was looking at the four orbs with intent, not sure what to think of them. As far as she knew, there was no way to trap an ascended being in the lower plane, but the barrier those orbs were creating did have a very peculiar composition. Definitely something she hadn't seen yet.

Anubis now became a little worried, but he hastily decided that this must be some kind of joke. He also decided it was time to show Liam how ridiculous this was. He moved toward one side of the bubble with the clear intention of just passing through it. To his and Oma's utter surprise the barrier repelled him back, also looking hurt by the touch. Anubis was not about to give up so easily though. He disappeared, completely transferring his essence into the higher plane, but again he was repelled back by the barrier. He returned visible, looking dumbfounded and also frightened. He turned towards Liam, "How is this even possible?"

"I told you to trust me on this," Liam said while addressing Oma and completely disregarding Anubis' question.

Oma couldn't believe what she was seeing. "He can't get out?"

"Nope. He can't cross the bubble and that means you are now free."

Oma did like that last part. "But what are you going to do with him? You can't just leave him here."

"I don't intend to," Liam said walking a few steps closer to Anubis, who was clearly getting angry, to taunt him a little. "My plan is to take him somewhere in the void between galaxies and leave him there to rot for the rest of eternity."

"You can't do this to me," Anubis yelled angrily.

"On the contrary. I think it is only fitting for an evil bastard such as you to spend the rest of eternity alone to reflect on what you've done."

Anubis was now royally pissed. He also didn't particularly like where this was going. To be imprisoned on Kheb wasn't the best of outcomes, but at least he could find comfort in the fact that his jailer was forced to spend eternity with him as well. He wasn't about to give up that easily though. This man in front of him was telling him there was no way to get free from the barrier, but he didn't say the orbs were indestructible. Anubis summoned an orb of red energy in his right hand, tossing it in the orb in front of him. The orb exploded and the barrier dropped like it was never there. "Ha!"

Oma looked a lot disappointed, "You said he could not free himself!" Oma said with an accusing tone.

"No, I said he couldn't cross the bubble, but I never said there was no way for him to destroy the orbs."

"I'm not in the mood for nuances Liam, especially since the end result is the same."

"Well, that's where you are wrong my dear," Liam said with a mischievous grin on his face.

Oma suddenly took a quick breath, finally realizing what Liam had meant. She as well started smiling.

"Catch 22," Liam said.

Anubis was having the clear impression he was missing something, but even if his life depended on it, he could not fathom what it might possibly be, "Catch 22?"

"Oh yeah. You could not have possibly freed yourself from that barrier, at least not without using your ascended powers."

Anubis suddenly understood what was going on, but it was already too late.

"The Ascended beings warned you Anubis that if you used powers gained when you ascended, you would be returned to the mortal realm," Oma said, just before turning into a ball of light and hurling at Anubis. She enveloped the bastard and they disappeared together.

Liam found himself standing alone on Kebb, but it hadn't lasted for long when Oma returned, "Where is he?"

"I dropped him on some remote planet."

"Why?"

"Because you would have beaten the crap out of him once I turned him into a mortal again."

"That's a good guess and I don't get why you haven't let me. Now I have to go look for him."

Oma was smiling, "Thank you Liam."

"You're welcome. It went better than what I'd anticipated."

"What was your real plan if he didn't use his ascended powers?"

"That _was_ my plan. I would have tossed the sucker somewhere in-between the Milky Way and the Pegasus galaxy, but I knew Anubis is an arrogant bastard and that when he gets angry he would do something stupid. Also, having spent more than two years here in solitude must have helped aggravate his impulsiveness."

"But even if you tossed him in the void, the orbs would not have been able to keep him forever."

"Even then, if he wanted to get back to the Milky Way galaxy he would have needed to use his ascended powers, again by breaking the rules and incurring the wrath of our ascended brothers and sisters. I also had a backup plan, but thankfully I didn't have to use it."

"And what was that backup plan of yours?"

"To toss him in hyperspace and see what happens. And if that didn't work, then to use a device to kill him, but that was only as the last resort."

Now it was time for Oma to step back a little and think. She didn't like the first part, but the second part was the one that really had her worried, "You are saying that not only you've made a barrier that can imprison an ascended being, but you are also saying you've made a device that can kill us?"

"Yes, but the device has never been tested and I also didn't want to find out how the others would have reacted if I used it. I have the slight feeling that even this was close to their limits and that if I tried something more, they would have acted."

"That is possible and even probable. How did you even know how to build these things in the first place?"

"Ah, it wasn't easy. I worked for many months in my lab, day and night, trying to find a way to build the barrier."

"And you finally succeeded, just like that?"

"No."

"No?"

"No," Liam replied while shaking his head. "When Merlin gave me his research, I realized that what I had done up until that moment was useless crap that would have never worked. Thankfully, Merlin's research helped a lot and I was able to understand the nature of the barrier I was trying to build. Eventually, I made a similar device that theoretically could scatter the energy pattern of an ascended being, but this hasn't been tested yet and it is not like I have a lot of subjects to try it on."

"Merlin? When did you meet Merlin?"

"In Camelot, but that is a story for another time. I hope that now that you are free, you'll remember to visit sometime."

"I will, I promise. How did you know where I was?"

"She told me."

Aenea suddenly appeared next to Oma. Oma had sensed she was close, but the point was, how did Liam know? There was a lot she had missed in this last two years of self-inflicted seclusion from the rest of the universe, "Aenea."

"Oma," Aenea replied before turning to face Liam, "Liam."

"Is there any chance you could tell me where you dropped that bastard off so I don't have to go search every planet in this galaxy to find him?"

Oma turned to face Liam, "Why are you so insistent in finding him?"

"You have to ask? The bastard deserves to pay for what he did and I don't like loose ends."

"I can assure you, he is paying for what he did as we speak; you don't have to worry about that. After all, I also had a score to settle with him," Oma replied, smiling mischievously.

"Alright, I'll buy it."

Oma nodded reassuring Liam even further before turning to Aenea, "You have risked a lot by sending him here. What if the others didn't agree?"

"There was a remote chance of that happening, but it was time to do something and I didn't know what else to do."

"This was my problem and not yours, but thanks anyway," Oma replied, smiling.

"You are welcome."

The three of them spent the next half an hour reminiscing about old times when they were all ascended. Liam was clearly the one on the disadvantage here, since he didn't remember every detail as good as the two ascended women could. On a few occasions, Liam had the clear impression these two were making fun of him. He could have sworn he had not done some of the things they were saying he had. It didn't matter though. He was glad to spend some time with them, also suspecting it wouldn't happen very often for the three of them to be together again.

It was finally time to leave. Liam had spent too much time on Kheb anyway and even though he had received reports from his ship in orbit in the form of a disgruntled William coming down on the planet from time to time, he had a lot of work to do elsewhere and this vacation had lasted for too long already. He beamed back on his ship, leaving the system only moments later. There was a celebration he needed to attend to.

* * *

**Higher Plane of Existence  
**_Stardate: 1997.64_

As Liam left Kheb, the two women transferred to the higher plane, only to be greeted by the Ascended Council comprised of dozens of ascended beings, the so called Elders.

"So, it worked just as planned," Aenea said to the council.

Oma was stunned by hearing those words, "What worked as planned?"

"The plan was for Liam to use the device he created. We wanted to see if the device worked, and it did," one of the ascended beings answered.

Oma still wasn't certain what was going on here, "Aenea? You were on board with this?"

"They asked me to help and I didn't see any reason why I shouldn't."

"So, this whole thing was only to test the device?"

"No, that was only part of it," another ascended being from the council replied.

Now it was time for Aenea to be stunned. She wasn't aware there had been another reason for doing this, "What? What other reason?"

"We wanted for Liam to finally be certain his barrier works."

"Why?" Aenea asked, really wanting to know.

"Because now he has the means to take the fight back to the Ori in their own galaxy. If he hasn't already, he will soon realize the barrier can protect entire ships against ascended beings; the only reason why he hasn't taken the fight to them yet."

"And why wasn't I informed of this second part?"

"Because we knew you wouldn't have liked it."

It was true. She really didn't like that second part. Especially because it meant Liam would have to go very far to a hostile galaxy where there were many threats, as well as the Ori. It wasn't a safe place, of that she was certain. "Even if he can theoretically reach the Ori galaxy without dying the moment he enters it, I still don't understand what he can achieve there."

"It is unfortunate he didn't bring the weapon with him, so we could see if it works."

"Even if it doesn't work he can fight the followers on their turf, something I'm more than certain the Ori haven't predicted or planned for," a second elder added, thinking that the Ori would never have predicted the possibility of the war coming to their galaxy. After all, who in their right mind would come to a galaxy infested with powerful ascended beings?

"The priors and the followers are practically defenseless against Liam's forces if the Ori cannot act against them."

Aenea didn't like it one bit. The fact that the followers would be defenseless didn't mean Liam would indiscriminately start killing billions of humans, "You believe Liam will go there and will start killing every last human in their galaxy? Fat chance of that ever happening, I can tell you that much."

"Maybe, but if he is faced with the option of finally getting the universe rid of the Ori, I'm not certain he won't choose that option."

"Getting rid of the Ori? We are talking about the followers and not the Ori."

"You are wrong. Once the Ori stop receiving energy from their followers, we will be able to act against them."

"I still don't think he will commit genocide."

"It is possible, but even in that case the Ori will believe that he will, and they _will _act accordingly."

"Meaning what exactly?"

"Meaning, they will be forced to do a preemptive strike against us."

That was possible. If the Ori suddenly thought they would lose their followers, they could decide to strike first at the Alterrans in the Milky Way galaxy and then Liam would have to make the difficult choice of attacking the followers or risk losing everything. "This is a dangerous game you are playing," Aenea concluded.

"It is dangerous to do nothing as well. This war cannot be won in this galaxy. It can only be lost."

Aenea heard the hard truth in the last statement made by one of the elders. There was no doubt. No matter how much Liam, even with the help of the Asgard and the Terrans, tried to stop the Ori followers, they would never stop coming and sooner or later they would get lucky and win a few battles. In the end, they would inevitably win the war as well.

Still, Aenea didn't like the scope of the gamble the elders were making. There were too many variables, too many ifs to think it would go as they had so easily predicted. Liam had changed a lot in the last few years and presuming to know how he would act in such a circumstance was stupid at best, at least in her opinion.

"We do not have to tell you how this discussion is for your ears only. No other ascended being is to know about this, not yet at least… and especially not Liam."

Aenea reluctantly nodded. She didn't like the fact they were using Liam for their own agenda, especially since they had been so pissed at him when he'd descended as if he was some kind of bad apple. Now, they thought differently. Now, he had become useful to them.

"And you Oma, did you finally understand the error of your ways? Did you learn your lesson?" one of the elders asked.

"I did, you don't have to worry about me anymore. From now on, I'm going to check whoever I'm ascending more thoroughly," Oma deadpanned.

The elders' jaws dropped almost touching the nonexistent white floor of the higher plane. This wasn't the answer they were hoping for. Aenea was actually having a hard time not to laugh.

The elders began murmuring among each other, from time to time looking in the direction of Oma with a threatening look, but in the end they simply decided to leave.

"You really risked a lot with that last statement, you know that," Aenea said. now that the two of them were alone.

"I know, but if I didn't tell them I was going to continue helping others ascend and they eventually found out that I did, which is not that difficult, it would be much worse," Oma said, thinking how it's impossible to hide the sudden rise in ascended population that will inevitably happen once she started helping people ascend.

"Why _are_ you continuing with this?"

"Because nothing has changed. I still think that many in the lower plane have reached the necessary level to understand enlightenment and I don't like that their lives have to end just because of their physical limitations. They cannot ascend on their own, not yet anyway, but not because they can't understand what the process involves."

"The humans will not be able to ascend on their own for a very long time. Are you going to help them for all that time?"

"I will. I will help whoever comes to Kheb and whoever is ready to open his mind to the possibility."

Aenea sighed, "Great! So, what the elders did has changed nothing and still the lower plane had to suffer for years the atrocities inflicted to them by Anubis. Nice plan they'd come up with, definitely one of their best in years," Aenea said sarcastically. "If their plan with Liam goes the same way, we are in real trouble."

"You're right about that, but the elders are also right about at least one thing."

"I know. The war against the Ori cannot be won here." Aenea had to admit it. There was no way Liam, the Asgard and the Terrans with their combined forces could end the war here. They could only postpone the inevitable victory of the Ori and she didn't know for how long they would be able to do even that.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Unknown Location  
**_Stardate: 1997.89_

John was looking through the bridge window of the Atlas. Since there was no planet or star anywhere around them, he was just looking at the emptiness of space, not because he liked it, but because he didn't know what else to do. He didn't like the fact they had been standing here for almost half an hour, waiting for Larrin to finally show up.

"Do you think they maybe didn't get the invitation?" Colonel Mark Gibbons asked, as well feeling tired of waiting.

"Oh no, she got the memo alright. She just likes to make people wait for her," John replied.

"That sounds very… unprofessional," Colonel Gibbons replied.

"Colonel, they are the Travelers. They don't have the military like we do. We should think of them more like civilians, and you know what that means. She is probably making her hear or nails, or _something_, while we wait here."

Gibbons chuckled, "Ah well, if that's the case, we'll be here waiting for a lot longer."

John shrugged. He had so much work to do and he really didn't like being here waiting and doing nothing. "Let's hope it won't be that long."

And wait they did, for almost an hour before the Travelers finally decided to show up in their Aurora class ship. After the captain of both ships exchanged a few words, John beamed to the Aurora.

"Larrin, what's with the delay?" John asked annoyed, while entering the small conference room where she was waiting.

"Sheppard, don't tell me you're angry at me for being late a few minutes," Larrin said, smiling.

"It's been more than an hour!"

"That long? Huh, I must have lost the track of time."

John sighed, "Well, it doesn't matter now. Let's just go down to business, shall we?"

"And what is this business you want to propose?"

John sat in a chair opposite to the one Larrin was sitting in, "Well, we have a little problem finding the Wraith, and I think you can help with that."

"Help how?"

"The Travelers have a lot of ships, and maybe you could use them to search for them."

Larrin was looking at Sheppard like he was a complete nutcase. The Travelers usually went the other way when the Wraith were involved, "And why would we go around the galaxy risking our lives?"

"Because we need to find the Wraith and finish them off before they have time to regroup. Who knows what they are up to right now."

"The last I heard, the Wraith have gone back in hibernation. Again, why would we risk our ships for nothing?"

"It's not nothing Larrin. You know as well as I do that them going to sleep doesn't mean they are defeated."

"Still not good enough Sheppard. You'll have to do better than that to convince me."

Sheppard knew that Larrin would have never just accepted his proposal, not without something concrete in return, "Fine. I do have something that could sweeten the deal."

"You do? And what would that be?"

"The Terrans are prepared to help the Travelers if you accept to do this."

"Help how?"

"Well, as far as I know, your ships are not in good shape, and you don't have the ability to repair them. I'm offering you our help in repairing every ship you have."

"That's very generous of you, but where would we stay while you repair our ships?"

"We won't repair your ships all at once Larrin. You give us a few and after we repair them, you give us more. I think you can squeeze a few people while we work on your ships."

"I don't know Sheppard. It's very crowded as it is. We don't need only to repair our existing ships. We need new ones."

She was just asking for more, but Sheppard didn't care. He had discussed the subject with Elizabeth extensively and they had decided they would help the Travelers as much as they could, even by building them new ships. Still, he had to show her how he wasn't pleased with her requests. If he didn't, she would never stop asking for more, "Larrin, you're pushing it. We want you just to look around if you see anything and you are asking us to rebuild you your entire fleet."

"Hey, you are asking _me_ for help, not the other way around. Besides, you think I don't hear rumors about the Terrans having massive shipyards. Don't tell me you don't have the capacity because I'll know you're lying."

"What we have and what we don't have doesn't matter, but fine, we're prepared to build you five new ships."

"Five Auroras?"

"No Larrin. We don't build those things for us because they are too expensive. Five ships like the one Katana has."

"Ten."

"Five! And that's my final offer." She just doesn't know when to stop.

"Five ships will be fine Sheppard," Larrin said, smiling.

"Good. Give us the schematics of that ship, and we'll start building them. Once we are finished with the first one, you transfer the crew from one of yours and we start repairing your old ones as well as building you new ones. Deal?"

"Deal." Larrin was happy. This day turned out to be much better than what she thought it would be. The Travelers fleet was really in bad shape, so bad they had been thinking of settling down on some planet rather than risking their lives on ships that barely worked. But now, things were looking up for them. With five new ships, and the rest of their fleet repaired, they would once again be at the highest of their strength, something that hadn't happened for a very long time.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy- Hyperspace  
**_Stardate: 1998.52_

Liam was traveling through hyperspace at great speed. He was late, _again_. The job of finding Oma and Anubis had taken much longer than he thought it would and he had to hurry if he wanted to reach Heliopolis in time, especially since he also wanted to make a small pit stop on the way there.

A hyperspace window tore open in the emptiness of space, depositing Liam's large ship into normal space. There was no planet or any other celestial body anywhere around the ship, but the location was far from being void. Less than a thousand miles from where Liam's ship had erupted from the hyperspace window, a large and lonely circle was standing. The massive supergate was something Liam had been planning to build for a very long time, but other projects had always pushed the date when he would finally be able to connect the four galaxies, finally allowing for ships and resources to be much easier to transfer and whenever needed across galactic distances.

The supergate in front of him was different from those made by the Ori. This was immediately apparent after noticing that there was no black hole anywhere near the supergate. Liam still didn't know how the Ori could channel so much energy from the black hole into the supergate, much less into the protective shield that made the damn thing practically indestructible. Instead, Liam had placed twenty ZPMs, the amount needed to safely connect to the other three galaxies, the Andromeda, Pegasus and Ida galaxies. It was a lot and he didn't like it, but the benefits all four races could gain from such a way of easily crossing the void between galaxies was too much to simply not do it. Now, even ships without the intergalactic hyperdrive would be able to cross the distance between galaxies, with resources easily being transferred from one galaxy to the other even with simple transport ships that otherwise couldn't cross the large gap between galaxies. The only thing he didn't like was that he had just lost 80 ZPMs he could not replace any time soon, and by soon it meant in the next two hundred years.

Here, he was waiting for three ships to arrive, three very important ships that were the culmination of the work done by the same three races. After the Second Great Alliance had been formed, there was no reason why they wouldn't start designing ships together. Liam, Thor and Sam had spent a lot of time designing their latest warship, the biggest and meanest ship to be designed so far and to be mass produced. The idea was to incorporate all technologies from all three races and come up with a design for a ship. Of course, all three races would afterwards build their own ships however they like, but the technology they would come up with would be available to all of them to be used as they would see fit.

Liam could still remember how almost two years ago, immediately upon meeting, Thor and Sam had begun looking at him expectantly. He had immediately understood they wanted him to give up the designs for his primary weapon. Liam had reluctantly informed them that that would not happen, not because he didn't want others to have it, but because the smallest ship that could use such a weapon would have to be at least two miles in length. Nobody wanted for their latest ship to be so big. It would make the construction of such behemoths that much harder, lasting almost a year longer to build than what they had planned for their latest ship and it would also consume too much precious materials. Sam and Thor weren't ready to give up so easily though. Together, they started working on a smaller version of the same weapon. The problem was that the particle accelerator had to be so big if they wanted for the particles to reach relativistic speed since, if not, the weapon would not create the spatial distortion capable of folding the shields of the targeted ship. The satellite weapons the Lanteans had used didn't need such feature since Wraith ships didn't have shields in the first place.

Still, stubborn as they were, they didn't give up and eventually, by using some discoveries from all three races, they were able to build a cannon that could be fitted on a ship two kilometers in length and still achieve relativistic speed. Of course, the weapon would not be as powerful as Liam's, but the important thing was, they could now place it on their strongest ships. The only other problem the weapon had was the slow rate of fire, as to fully charge it, it would take almost three full minutes, but they thought the strength of the weapon was compensation enough to still use it.

Going further with the design for their ship, they all agreed no one else could even closely reach the level of maneuverability and acceleration the Asgard ships could achieve. Also, Liam was very interested in the Asgard internal suppression system. If you detonated a bomb on an Asgard ship, the suppression system would completely negate the blast, something Liam was very interested in. With such system, even damaged the ship could still provide safety for the crew as no fire or explosion could spread inside the ship. The system was also capable of at least partially stopping even a beam weapon of low-to-moderate strength once it breached inside the ship.

That being added to the list of useful tech they would need, they slowly went to the designs of the shields. Combining all their knowledge, they had come up with shields similar to what the Asgard used, but with many improvements in the shields generators and with an energy coefficient of only 1.24. They had also been able to increase drastically the amount of power the shield generators could receive without overheating or diminishing from their nominal performance as a result.

Liam added another feature to the shields. He didn't know if they would ever need it, but why not implement it if the technology was readily available. During his research, Liam had come up with missiles with the ability to shift into another dimension for a short period of time, just enough to slip through the shields before reappearing. The Dimensional Torpedoes were expensive to build, the same as everything that would have Merlin's shifting technology in it, but the discovery of such weapon also meant an enemy could come up with something similar too. It meant they needed to make shields capable of stopping such weapons. It hadn't been easy, but eventually Liam had come up with shield generators that can as well slip into another dimension if needed. The result was that when the shield generators would change dimension, the projected shield would also be in the other dimension. It meant that ships with such shields would need shield generators dedicated to work independently into another dimension, and the task hadn't been easy to accomplish. He was also the only one who could build such generators for now, and that meant he would have to work extra hard in order to supply all three races whenever they would build new ships of the latest type.

They were already more than happy with what they had achieved, but they knew more could be accomplished. The next item on their list was the power source they would use. Inspecting the various systems at their disposal, they quickly found out the Asgard Neutrino Ion Generators were able to deliver the most power, surpassing even what Liam had designed so far. The Neutrino Ion Generators also used Naquadah to generate power, but in a very different way than how the other two members did. The generator would ionize atoms of Naquadah before transforming them into a vaporous form kept in the center of the generator by a strong electric field. Once the generator was powered, the center would be bombarded by a massive amount of neutrinos which would excite the vaporous Naquadah, resulting in strong radiations being emitted. Since the entire generator was encased in a sphere of Neutronium, the radiation could not escape the sphere since this was one of the most important features of the precious material. All of the radiation would then be channeled into collectors, pushing the raw power through the main power conduits. This generator could give at least 50 percent more power than what Liam currently had created, but this didn't mean they were going to just use what the Asgard had for power generation for their latest ships.

Liam and Sam looked at each other knowingly, and even Thor could sense what they wanted to do. That had been the moment when he sighed in resignation, muttering only one word, '_Oy.'_

The next two weeks the three of them had worked relentlessly on simulation after simulation, until finally they were confident that everything worked as it should. Then, they proceeded to build the prototype Enhanced Neutrino Ion Generator, a spherical device that had a shielded camera inside so they could better monitor the reaction once the generator would power up. Everything happened the same way as with the old version of the generator, with the ionized vapor forming, but this time instead of Naquadah, a mix of Naquadah and Naquadria had been used, mixed together in even proportions. As they proceeded to activate the generator by sending a constant stream of neutrinos, the display that showed the reaction inside through the shielded camera lit up the faces of all three people present with such intensity that they all believed they were just looking at the next big bang creating another universe. It was amazing and frightening at the same time. The test went on, and they just understood they had created something entirely new. The massive reactor was giving almost tenfold the amount of power the usual neutrino ion generator would give. Soon, they also realized that with four such generators on their newest ships they could even charge a ZPM, something they never believed possible. The implications were staggering and endless. Liam also realized how his solar station, the one responsible for charging ZPMs, just became obsolete and that now all of their dreadnought class ship could have a ZPM on board that the generator would charge over time.

This was a day to remember, but the improvements just kept coming. A minor improvement were the plasma repeaters the Terrans had developed with a far greater rate of fire than anything the Asgard or Liam had at the moment, but the real contribution from the Terrans was actually tech that came from a certain person that liked to work on strange projects in his spare time.

Two months earlier, Rodney had come to Sam, yelling '_I did it, I did it!_' with all the air his lungs could carry. Sam had of course thought this was yet another in the endless stream of ideas that Rodney had and that actually never worked, but this time was different. Rodney had spent several months working on perfecting something he had found in the Ancient database and he had finally been able to make it work. Wireless energy transfer through a high frequency subspace band. At first, Sam didn't realize the implications of what Rodney was trying to say, mostly because he was babbling incoherently from all the excitement. Eventually, after Rodney had finally been able to calm down, Sam was able to understand the usefulness of such technology.

Liam also understood the usefulness of something like this, the moment he heard about it. He decided he would use the new discovery in three ways. The first one was to use it to power remotely operated drone fighters aboard their ships. With the ability to transfer large quantities of energy to their fighters, they could have strong shields and enough power to have very potent weapons on board. The possibilities were endless since fighters were usually the weakest ships only because they had a small generator on board. This new technology was now going to change things. Of course the fighters could not get far because the technology didn't allow transfer of energy on interstellar distances, but still, the drone fighters could be the perfect screening force in a battle. He also understood the drone weapon now could be constantly charged if modified to receive the energy through the new system. It meant the drones could have a much longer lifespan, greater penetration power and once they exploded they could have much more energy stored in them.

The last, but by far not the least important discovery was that the ships now could have a Fortress Shield. The large dreadnoughts would be able to launch satellites that are actually shield emitters that would receive energy from the ship itself, forming a massive bubble capable of encompassing entire fleets. It also meant that, if more ships with the same ability were present, they could all send their energy to the satellites, adding their energy to strengthen the Fortress Shield. In the same way when Sam heard about Rodney's discovery, the first thing she thought was the creation of a planetary shield with thousands of satellites placed in orbit while they take power from a source, or several sources, on the planet's surface. At the time, they had immediately started building the satellites they would need to protect their worlds, and now Earth and Asura were the first planets that had received their planetary shields. Tollana and Terra Nova would be next in line to receive the planetary shield, but the problem weren't the satellites as much as it was the massive power generation they would need to sustain the shield. Still, with the advent of Enhanced Neutrino Ion (ENI) Generators they now at least had the means to do it without the need to use large quantities of ZPMs.

Today, a year and a half after the three individuals had come with the necessary tech to build their dreadnoughts, three examples from the three races would meet for the first time before proceeding to Heliopolis for the second year anniversary of the signing of their alliance. The first to come out from the Supergate was the Terran dreadnought D-306 Hercules class, straight from one of the shipyards on Asura. The ship was 2.056 meters in length, a colossus in his own right and very similar to the previous Terran ships, only with the hangar bays having different proportions. They were relatively smaller in comparison to the rest of the ship. The next to come out was the Guardians Archangel class ship just a few meters below two kilometers in length. The third to come out was the Asgard Valhalla class ship, probably having received the name since whoever would try to face it in battle would most certainly end there, and the ship was 2,450 meters in length very similar in design to the O'Neill but larger by more than 50 percent and with technologies far beyond what the smaller ship had.

Liam was happy to see the three ships all together and even more seeing the Supergate had worked flawlessly. He now thought how they would soon have to start practicing war-games together, especially since the Fortress Shield would change the way battles in space are fought and not by a negligible margin. The three ships could now form one single massive Fortress Shield by combining their satellites and their power. They could protect an entire fleet of ships with ease while the enemy was at the mercy of their weapons. It would be much different than how they fought battles so far and he liked that fact very much. If it was different, it also meant that what he had seen in his dream can be changed and the three ships in front of him were proof of that. He knew how the ships in his dream had looked like and he knew these three were similar, but not identical. The idea that the future was not set in stone made Liam feel an overwhelming sense of hope for them all.

Little did he think about the possibility that change could go both ways, for better… or for worse.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They Are always appriciated**


	6. Remnants of a Great Civilization

**Author' note:** here is the sixth chapter of this book. Writing goes slowly, work even more, but thankfully I wrote this chapter and a few more in advance so no problem publishing them on time.

**Nagato:** Glad to hear that.

**romanhellhound:** Not… this Anubis, no ;) This one got what he deserves.

**Senrab Nomis: **Well, anger never plays well when _deadly _serious decisions need to be made. The Travelers need help, but it is time for them to do at least something except aimlessly traveling the galaxy. Those ships are the biggest and baddest they can offer if you don't count Liam's ship that's wasn't meant for mass production. The problem when you know the future is that every action you make from that point on changes it, but who's to say that good intentions must always translate into a better outcome ;)

**Guest:** To tell you the truth, it simply didn't cross my mind to use rings when I wrote the chapter. There are many details in such epic stories and it is very difficult to remember to write them all, all the time. Also, the rings in Pegasus are not very common. So, only the Terrans would be able to benefit from them.

**Epi:**

The Terrans will send probes to known black holes, and not go search everywhere for the Ori, and I wouldn't categorize black holes as good real estate. I also don't think that it's possible to canvas 300 000 000 000 stars and the space in-between them. They will soon find out that in Pegasus. Again, my last reply, about why sending Earth's countries to colonize other planets, remains the same. The Terrans have colonized Tollana, Terra Nova and Asura, planets that can hold billions of people, and those planets are protected with ground and orbital defenses as well as the right infrastructure for people to live on them comfortably. They also have several mining outposts and military bases around the galaxy and a big asteroid full of Naquadah in the Solar system. They have no reason to send colonist on poorly defended planets, especially with the Ori, Aschen and Lucians lurking around. Besides, what's the gain of such move? They would just have to worry about those planets and their people. As far as China goes, I think they would also get pissed if other Earth countries could colonize other planets. The point is to prevent WWIII and not cause it.

Having more colonies declaring independence is a problem. The idea is to one day unite all countries on Earth, like the Alterrans were united under one name, no matter on how many planets they were spread. And being part of the same alliance is not the same as being the same nation or race, not by a long shot.

My idea when it comes to building stuff is really simple. If you want something that is capable of destroying a Hive ship for example, then it must be big, it must have a big honking space gun, and an adequate power source to power the power hungry beast. And the same goes for the shields. Your idea is to make something cheaper, but still capable of delivering the same or similar amount of destruction as a Lantean satellite. If that was possible, why would then anyone build a Lantean satellite? Also, don't take my comparison of one satellite equaling one battleship literally. I meant to say that if you want to build defensive satellites, you must take resources, shipyard time, manpower and whatnot from another project, currently that project being building more ships. Also, keeping something constantly cloaked, means having a lot of power to spare, since a cloak uses a lot of power to work. Again, the small power source is not helping here.

Maybe in time they will build something, but for now, the station is on its own. Besides, how would then anyone have at least a chance of attacking it? ;)

The Terrans already have the technological superiority over other races in the Pegasus and Milky Way galaxy. If I make them also able to build things in a blink of an eye, then there's no challenge in the story, and without challenge the story becomes boring, does it not?

I didn't write about Woolsey warning about anything, but it's a free market so races can hire someone to teach them, the same as buying and selling stuff. From what I know from the episodes about the Tollans, I'm not sure they wouldn't have warned them. Maybe they didn't say it in the show, but the Tollans were usually very meticulous people, and I think they would have definitely said something, at least in the sense 'Hey! Don't override those security measures on that thing because otherwise it can blow in your face'. Wouldn't any race that gives something to someone _to help_ not give them at least a manual? The problem I think was on the Saritan's end, when they understood what kind of destructive power the generator could deliver, maybe thinking they can control it somehow or set to a lesser yield before using it for the wrong thing.

In my story, shields are just that, something to protect your ships or whatever else that needs to be protected. The only mention of shields capable of absorbing energy in the show was when the Ori encompassed a planet in order to turn it into a singularity, and the Prometheus' crew was very much surprised the Ori shield could do that. If not, they would have never detonated the Mark IX, would they? This also means that their shields cannot do that. Also, the Odyssey, _somehow_, used the Ori beam's energy to revert time, but in the episode the beam didn't struck the shield. The beam went through the front side of the ship and only then time started reverting back. Also, I always thought it was a little far-fetched that entire '_use of the beam's power to revert time_' ordeal. They used up an entire ZPM and the Asgard Core in the fifty years they were stuck in time, but a single Ori beam was enough to revert everything back? Thankfully, that part didn't happen in my story :)

If you have longer questions, you can PM and I can then reply immediately instead of having to wait for the next chapter to be published. I wanted to reply through PM even to these reviews, but you used a guest account so...

**So, enough about reviews and let's continue with the story.**

**Thanks to my beta, and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter too.**

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Atlantis  
**_Stardate: 2031.32_

"…the Ancients left us the city for safe keeping and that means _we_ are the rightful owners."

"Nice job you've done with the safe keeping part. Leaving the city to slumber on the ocean's floor for ten thousand years," John replied to what Helia said. They had been at it for an hour now, both sides trying to tell the other why the city should belong to them.

"It is irrelevant how we left the city. And there is also the fact that, for us, only two years had passed, not ten thousand."

"You spending two years in a time dilation field doesn't change the fact that for the rest of the universe, _Atlantis included_, it has been ten thousand years. And you would take the city from us to do what exactly? There are a hundred of you at the most. You can barely operate the city and we also need it to fight the war against the Wraith."

"Again what we intend to do or not is irrelevant. We are the rightful owners of this city," the woman barked back.

"Actually, you are not," Liam's voice was heard coming from the entrance door of the conference room.

The woman turned to face the man who spoke those words. She wanted to bark something back, but when she saw what the man was wearing, she paused. She got the feeling this man wasn't a Terran, "Who are you?"

"The rightful owner of this city," Liam replied simply, while walking in the room and taking a seat, "I apologize for my tardiness. My staying on Kheb lasted much longer than I had anticipated."

"And who are you?" the woman asked again, puzzled on how one man could be the owner.

"I'm Liam, and I am the only living Alterran. Well, now there is another one actually, but that is not important right now," Liam replied.

"Alterran? The Alterrans have ascended a long time ago. How can you be an Alterran then?" the woman asked, skeptical about his claim.

"It's simple really. I descended," Liam answered her question.

Again, the woman was still skeptical about his explanation, but as she watched the other in the room not even flinch at such news, at least news to her, she started to sense how it must be true. _'Crap!'_

Before she could say anything though, Liam continued, "Anyway, let's get this thing solved. As much as I was able to understand, the problem is the ownership of Atlantis and the claim of the Lanteans found on the Tria traveling to the Milky Way galaxy for the last ten thousand years, or as they said, for two years inside the time distortion. Is that about right?"

"Yes," Weir replied.

"Alright then. From what I can tell there are two possibilities here. The first one is that Atlantis belongs to me, since I represent the race that built it, or the second option is that the city doesn't belong to the Alterrans anymore in which case we should decide who between the Terrans and the Lanteans is the rightful owner."

The Lantean woman picked up the second option immediately, "The Ancients left us the city when they ascended. That means we are the true owners."

"I'm not sure if the city was given to you or if it was given to you for safe keeping. There is a difference here. Also, in the case the city was given to you, we also need to define if the city was abandoned by the Lanteans ten thousand years ago. If that is true, then whoever finds it is the rightful owner."

This part the Lantean woman didn't like. "We always planned to return, so, technically it wasn't abandoned."

Liam smiled, "Ten thousand years is a lot of time, and you _didn't_ return, although, maybe not you, but other Lanteans for certain had ample opportunity to do so."

"I cannot speak for other Lanteans," The woman replied.

"That's true, but let's imagine that your ship's hyperdrive didn't break down. You would have continued your voyage to the Milky Way galaxy and in a year you would have reached Earth and those Lanteans that went back through the gate. Do you believe that, if that scenario played out, you would have returned to Atlantis? Even when your people didn't?" Liam asked.

Another thing the Lantean didn't like. She also knew she shouldn't lie, "I suppose we wouldn't."

"Then I believe that we can safely say the city _was_ in fact abandoned by the Lanteans with no intention of returning. This means that the only two parties that can claim ownership of the city are me or the Terrans because they found the city," Liam said, briefly noticing the thoughtful look on Weir. "And you, don't get your hopes up. You know what our deal was and it will continue to be."

"So we are left with nothing. Are you going to take our ship too?" the Lantean woman replied, clearly disappointed.

Liam turned back to face the woman, "So pessimistic. What happened to you?"

"The Wraith happened."

"That is actually understandable," Liam replied thoughtfully. Spending hundreds of years fighting a losing war tends to leave you bitter. "The Tria is being towed here as we speak. The ship's hyperdrive will then be replaced by an intergalactic one. After that, you can do with it whatever you please. May I now ask what your plans are?"

"Without the city, I really don't know."

"What were your plans when you thought you had the city?" Liam asked.

"I don't know exactly. Start over I guess."

"Why don't you start over somewhere else then? Like, on Eden Prime for example."

"Eden Prime?"

Liam turned to face Weir, "You didn't tell them about Eden Prime?"

"No, we waited for you."

Liam turned back to face the Lantean woman, "Eden Prime is a planet in the Andromeda galaxy. The Edenians are a race of advanced humans not unlike you that I've advanced ten thousand years ago."

"You mean similar to what you did with us, the Lanteans?" the woman said, now curious, "How many?"

"Yes and around fifty millions," Liam said, answering both questions.

"That… is actually something we would like to consider," the woman replied with hope.

Liam sighed. He was happy he had managed to come to a satisfactory solution. He could have easily said that Atlantis belongs to him and end the dispute immediately, but he wanted to point out that the Lanteans actually abandoned the city. The reason why he did it was because now they couldn't lay claim on Borealis either.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Babylon One  
**_Stardate: 2052.11_

Quickly moving down, the central elevator deposited Woolsey on the main floor of the Common Area. As he exited quickly, rushing to the Station's security room, he thought how this wasn't exactly what he had signed up for. When he decided it would be a good change for him to take such a posting, Woolsey never thought he would have so much trouble to deal with. He now admired the likes of Dr. Weir even more, thinking how, if she had even a tenth of the troubles on Atlantis as he was having here, she was really a great leader. The problem was that he thought he would have spent most of his time on the station doing routine administration in the interim between brokering diplomatic deals with other races; what was his true passion. Instead, he found himself having to work closely with the security on the station in an attempt to solve the never ending number of various infractions threatening to grow with each passing day.

The first day he came on the station, everybody assured him the station was completely monitored with a myriad of different sensors and cameras, watching every inch of the place. He had been glad to hear such news since it meant crime on the station would be at minimal levels. Soon though, as more and more aliens started pouring into the station, reports started coming in stating how several cameras and sensors had been deliberately destroyed by unknowns. The problem hadn't looked that bad as it was only a matter of replacing the damaged devices with new ones, but as time had progressed, more and more reports reached his desk with more equipment listed as having been destroyed. Soon, he realized the problem wasn't so small after all and that if it continued at this pace, soon, the number of broken monitoring equipment would be greater than the number they could repair in time.

The lack of proper security on the station meant that illegal deals were being made all the time. Today, the chief security officer had sent him a report stating that this was a losing battle and that something needed to change if they wanted to get ahead of the rising number of crimes. It was this reason why Woolsey was now strolling towards the chief's office. He needed to discuss what he meant exactly and if he actually had any ideas on how to solve their problems.

Entering the chief's office without being bothered by the several wannabe criminals cuffed to the bench or by those currently being interrogated in the adjacent room, he noticed the chief's desk looked much the same as his own. There was too much paperwork on it. Apparently, the chief had his hands full in reports from all over the station.

"Chief O'Bannon, is this a bad time?" Woolsey asked politely as it was usual for him to do.

The chief raised his head from one of the opened folders he was just reading, "Not at all. What can I do for you mister Woolsey?"

"I'm here regarding the last memo you sent me. Although I understand why you think we need to do something to better our situation, I fail to find any reference on how you intend to actually accomplish that task."

"This is because I didn't write it in the memo. I just wanted to inform you that the situation is bad and that changes are necessary if we want to fix it. I have hoped you would come to me or asked me to come to you so that we might discuss this issue at length. Something I don't believe could have been done through mere exchange of e-mails."

"I see. Well, I have time now, if you do."

"I do. Please, take a seat," O'Bannon said, pointing at the chair on the opposite side of the desk. Once Woolsey was seated, O'Bannon continued, "The situation is bad and it's our fault we got to this point. We have become too reliant on technology Mr. Woolsey."

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure I follow," Woolsey replied.

"Mr. Woolsey, I'm not sure if you know that, but I was a police officer for over fifteen years before joining the Terrans, and in all that time we never had even a trickle of the technology we have here. And yet, we caught bad guys on a daily basis. The difference here is that everything works perfectly like a well-oiled machine, but only as long as we can rely on our sensors, scanners, cameras and so forth. Once we lose some of these toys, we are suddenly lost, with our ability to catch the bad guys going down the drain."

"I understand what you are saying, but, please, tell me what the solution is."

"We need real police work Mister Woolsey. We need detectives, we need to infiltrate the various criminal organizations on the station with undercover cops who'll get us the information we need to make arrests. We need the whole shebang Mr. Woolsey. Only then will we be able to put a stop to crimes committed on the station or at least severely diminish them."

"And do you have the manpower to do it?"

"No, I don't. And that's precisely what I need from you."

"You need more men, is that it?"

"Yes, but not just any men. I need experienced officers and I need new faces. Our security officers are too well-known to be able to infiltrate any criminal organization here without being recognized."

Woolsey nodded in understanding, "How many?"

"For starter, twenty will suffice, but eventually we'll need more."

"I don't even know if the entire Terran organization has that number of people who could be construed as experienced police officers. You are one of the few that I know who have decided to join the Terrans and that has a police background, but I'll see what I can do. If there isn't that many, I'm sure we can find someone equally qualified from the military." Woolsey said, thinking on how the Terrans mostly recruited scientist, doctors, engineers and people from the military, with maybe some members of their close families also joining that weren't directly in those specialties, but cops were never the primary target group. Even O'Bannon was here only because his daughter was a scientist on Asura, and he and his wife wanted to join her on this adventure. If they didn't, they would probably never see her. Galactic distances were still somewhat of an obstacle for relationships of any kind.

"If there is no other choice, then someone from the military police or somebody who worked as a spy or black ops, but if there is any chance, I would rather have real police officers. The military types tend to try to solve things too quickly and… too messy. They usually don't work well within the law and that can be a problem here," O'Bannon said, not liking the idea of getting some trigger happy black op guy who would shoot first and ask questions later.

"As I said, I'll do what I can, but let's discuss the camera problem we're having."

"There is nothing more we can do that we are not already doing Mr. Woolsey. It's always easier to break something than to repair it, and there will always be blind spots on the station where the people here can make deals without us seeing them."

Woolsey didn't like it. There was also the fact that their attempts to force the various embassies to choose who's allowed to come on the station and who wasn't, apparently hadn't paid off. Even threats of sanctions, followed shortly after by real sanctions, didn't change anything. The embassies would usually explain that they didn't have the ability to check everybody so thoroughly or sometimes even by stating how it would be discrimination to allow only some people while others would be left outside just because there was some indication they were criminals. Plus, criminals would always find a way to fool the system, if necessary even by sending somebody who, on paper, was clean as a whistle, but he was actually working for some well-known criminals.

After having discussed a few more points on how to improve their situation, Woolsey ended the meeting, quickly stepping outside the chief's office. While he was walking back towards the elevator, the only thing on his mind was hope that indeed the chief's plan would somehow work. Still, Woolsey managed to smile as he thought how not everything that was going on right now on the station looked as bleak. Businesses, legal businesses were booming on the station. There were more than ten thousand registered companies at the moment from so many different races. Woolsey could also say that diplomatic relations between the many races were also going well. Although, he really didn't won't to say it out loud because he didn't want to jinx it like he had done so the first day when, after a simple statement that he was certain everything would go smoothly on the station, a brawl had ensued just in front of him and, of course, Jack standing just beside him. Not a high point in his carrier he thought.

* * *

**Furling Galaxy – Aboard the Intrepid  
**_Stardate: 2065.62_

Atan, the captain of the first Edenian ship that had been built in the remote Furling galaxy, was watching on the main display the stars pass by his ship at incredible speed. It was strange to watch stars while traveling through space. He was accustomed to watch the swirling blue void of hyperspace and not space.

Almost a week ago, the construction of the first interstellar ship capable of using a different form of FTL drive had been completed. The ship, an exploration vessel, was only two hundred meters in length and it had a crew of almost a hundred and fifty people on board. The ship had to be designed from the grounds up because the different power generation units and the FTL drive had greatly influenced how the ship needed to be built. Having a fusion instead of a Naquadah reactor meant the ship had almost ten times less power to work with. It meant that sensors, weapons, shields, as well as the FTL drive had to be designed with that in mind. Soren had gone through the vast Alterran database in search for what he thought would be the perfect compromise between the various components the ship would use.

The first thing he had done was to find a shield the Alterran had used somewhere in the distant past and that had the lowest coefficient, which meant the lowest consumption of the limited amount of power the new type of ship produced. He had found the desired designs and tried to upgrade them as best as he knew how in the short time he had. He had been moderately satisfied with the results.

The shields indeed had the lowest coefficient any of the modern Alterran ships used. It did have a coefficient of only 1.09, but that wasn't the only parameter you looked in a shield. The current designs could not compare to the modern Alterran or Asgard shields in matters of what they could stop, both in matter of strength and various types of weapons that could be blocked. The modern shields the Alterran and the Asgard used were so advanced that the only way to bypass the shields was by brute force. These shields were far from that and he knew of at least several types of weapons that could bypass them with ease. For example, the Tollan ion cannons would go through the shields without too much trouble and that was also true for the weapons the Asgard used. The Asgard energy weapons used a form of phase shifting that allowed the weapon's energy to pass through most shields and this new design wasn't any exception. And the same could of course be said for the Alterrans drones. Still, Soren knew that in this galaxy there weren't any races that had that type of weapons at their disposal since they as well were limited by the lack of materials in this galaxy.

The weapons as well had to be modified as the lack of Neutronium meant they couldn't build their usual energy weapons that would create a sustained beam of baryon particles, and the lack of a Naquadah reactor meant the power of the weapons also had to be dialed down. In a similar way, Soren had found something the Alterran had called phase cannons that they could build with what they had here. The sensors also had to be dialed down from what the Alterrans used. There just wasn't enough power to go around and Soren didn't like that fact.

On the other hand, the thing Captain Atan disliked the most was the speed at which the ship was crawling through space. A week ago, he had given the order to leave dry-dock in order to begin their mission of exploration and today, he was still traveling the less than ten thousand light-years long journey to their destination, something their most powerful hyperdrive would have taken only minutes to accomplish. When the Edenian had first arrived in this galaxy and settled in a region where the message they had found about the Furlings was telling them they had gone, the only two cruisers they had, had started canvasing the area in search for more clues. On one of those missions, one cruiser had stumbled upon another ship and he was able to scan the ship's computer before the ship could leave, probably as a result of having noticed the scanning of their database. From the database, the Edenian had learned about many races in this region of the galaxy, not one of them being human. They had learned about several factions being at war with each other and even something about their history. The vessel the cruiser had intercepted was from a race called the N'gati and from what they could determine from the database, they would be the perfect candidate to make first contact. The N'gati were, by the most part, a peaceful race, only using force when it was necessary, and they also weren't the expansionistic type. The thing that had caught Soren's eye the most was the reference in the database in which the N'gati had revered some other alien race. They thought of them as being gods, probably because to the N'gati they looked as if they were, that is, more than twenty thousand years ago. At that time, the N'gati were still in the stone age and any race that possessed advanced technology would have looked as gods to the primitive N'gati. There was also a vague description about the race and from that description Soren believed they were the Furlings. There had been no names mentioned in the database and clearly no modern pictures, but the description of the aliens was close enough to think they were indeed the Furlings.

"Sir, the sensors are detecting a ship only two light-years from our current location," one of the crew said, in the process snapping the captain from his thoughts.

"Do we have more data on the vessel?"

"No sir, the ship is stationary in space," the crewman replied as the sensors refused to give anything more than a small blip on his display. Having less powerful sensors really sucked.

"Helm, change course to intercept," the captain ordered.

The pilot did as he was ordered and the ship changed course. It took the ship almost five minutes to reach the location, only two-light years away, something a hyperdrive would have crossed even before the captain could have given the order. If they had a hyperdrive, they would actually have had to turn back.

As the FTL drive's field collapsed, the ship decelerated almost instantly to sublight speed, only seven light-seconds from the unknown vessel. The vessel didn't stay unknown as now the sensors were more than capable of identifying the type as being an N'gati cruiser. The ship was a little over a hundred and fifty meters in length, one of the smallest interstellar ships in the N'Gati fleet.

"Send our first contact message and let's hope our new translation matrix is working properly," the captain ordered referring to the new device the Edenian needed to use if they wanted to communicate with other aliens. The database they had found contained the blueprints of a device all races in this galaxy used to communicate with each other. In the beginning, when the races of this galaxy didn't have the translation matrix, wars were very common since not understanding each other was a very risky thing. Then, one race, more than five hundred years ago had developed a device that could learn and translate languages almost instantaneously. It was a great discovery as now first contact usually didn't end up in a firefight as it was a frequent occurrence in the past. At least now, when one race would say _'sorry, we are leaving'_, the other wouldn't reply _'You have just insulted my family. Fire!'_

"Sir, I am picking up some strange readings."

"Can, you be more specific lieutenant?"

The Lt. worked on his console for a few second before replying, "There are two distinct locations near the alien vessel that are scattering our active sensors sir."

The captain thought about it for a moment, "Could those be cloaked ships lieutenant?"

"It's possible sir. Actually, I don't know what else it could be."

"Send our telemetry to the N'Gati ship and make it a tight beam. I don't want to let those cloaked ships know we know they are here. Also, send a message asking if they know what those readings are."

Using a focused radio signal that only the N'Gati ship would detect, the crewman sent the message. It took some time, but when the N'Gati ship raised its shields and started what appeared to be some kind of complex evasive maneuver, it was enough to confirm what those anomalies were. The two anomalies suddenly stopped being as such as the two ships decloaked, also raising their shields and powering weapons. The ships were almost identical in size to the N'Gati ship and they were clearly not friendly.

"Sir, the N'Gati are broadcasting a distress signal. The two unknown vessels are on intercept course with the N'Gati cruiser," the same crewman said.

"Why are the N'Gati not engaging their FTL drive to leave? They have no chance of winning against those two ships?" the pilot asked, not understanding what the N'Gati were trying to do.

"They don't have a hyperdrive Lieutenant. Here, using the FTL drive to escape is not a good idea. The enemy can follow and fire at you even during FTL travel and using precious energy to power the engines means you have a lot less for your shields." It was true. Not having the ability to escape in hyperspace where nobody could fire at you was a problem.

"Sir, I'm detecting several more ships less than five light-years from here. By their energy signature they are N'Gati and they are coming here at full speed."

The distress signal had probably been picked up by other ships and they were coming to help, but the point was, would they reach them in time. The captain had a big problem now as he watched the N'Gati ship getting hit, knowing full well that reinforcements would need at least ten more minutes to reach the battle, and he knew the ship wouldn't survive for that long.

"Bring the shields to full power and bring our weapons online. Broadcast a message telling those two ships to stop their attack if they don't want to be destroyed."

While the comm. officer was sending the message, the firefight was continuing. Both sides were not pulling any punches, but the N'Gati ship was clearly having difficulties fighting two opponents at once. As the two ships didn't stop their attack, Captain Atan ordered to target the closest enemy vessel. He didn't like the fact that his last order also meant they had just started a war with an unknown race, but he could not with a clear conscience stand by and do nothing while the N'Gati ship gets hammered.

The Intrepid class ship lurched forward, toward the closest enemy vessel. It reached weapons range, opening fire from its two phase cannons hitting the alien vessel. The alien vessel must have understood they now had another problem to deal with, since it stopped chasing the N'Gati ship and turned towards the new threat. The nimble ship made a tight turn in order to face the starboard side of the Intrepid. The ship fired its weapons, making the Intrepid's shield glow on impact. The Intrepid didn't wait for any invitation as it fired again, hitting the enemy ship again and again with its golden beams.

"Report!" the captain said while the ship was shaking from another hit.

"Shield at 74%. So far, no damage to the hull. I'm also detecting their shields have dropped down considerably after our second attack."

"Continue firing. How is the N'Gati ship ferrying?"

"Not good. If the readings are correct, their shield's collapse is imminent. Maybe one or two more hits."

The captain didn't like it. Maybe he waited for too long and there was a good chance the N'Gati ship would not survive. As he thought about the battle, the officer manning the sensor informed him the enemy ship's shields had just dropped. The captain ordered the ship disabled, focusing their fire on the ship's sublight engines and its weapons. The next two hits took care of that and the enemy ship began drifting sideways. The last two hits must have done even more damage than they thought as the ship now looked as if it was without power.

As the intrepid turned toward the second ship, the N'Gati vessel got hit and this time its shields weren't enough to block the enemy weapon. The captain watched a large explosion on the left side of the ship. The ship was a sitting duck, barely capable of moving, but now the second enemy ship had other things to worry about. The second ship, the same way as the first one, must have understood the Intrepid was on its tail as they stopped firing at the N'Gati and began turning to face the new enemy.

The intrepid fired hitting the enemy vessel only to be hit by the same in return. The firefight continued this way with both sides doing whatever they could to damage the other while evading to being hit.

"Status of our shields?"

"34% percent. Our power reserves are all depleted. We can't take much more of this," the captain's second in command answered.

"Let's hope they can't either. They must be at their limits as well."

Thankfully, the Captain didn't have to find out whose shields would collapse first as two much larger N'Gati battleships joined the battle. The enemy vessel must have understood the situation went from bad to worse since it engaged its FTL drive with extreme haste. The problem was, the ship activated its cloak too, making it difficult to detect and follow.

One of the battleships went near the damaged N'Gati cruisers, clearly shielding it, while the second turned in chase of the fleeing ship. Captain Atan ordered to take the weapons offline as the battle was clearly over. He was grateful the N'Gati ship hadn't been destroyed, but he didn't like how the battleship that just arrived was still keeping its weapons ready to fire at them.

The cruiser must have sent a message to the larger ship since it had finally taken its weapons offline as well. They had probably informed of who the enemy was and who wasn't.

It had taken some more waiting before the N'gati decided to contact the newcomers and thank them for their help. If the Intrepid hadn't informed them of the two cloaked ships and later helped them fend off the attack, the cruiser would have most certainly been destroyed. The N'Gati were a strange looking race, not like humans, but more like a much taller version of an Asgard. There was also another difference. While the Asgard were almost expressionless while talking, the N'gati were very expressive with their hands and facial expressions. The positive side was that the translation matrix was working perfectly, which meant misunderstandings would be rare. The N'Gati informed them how the Edenians had found a friend among the stars, but also an enemy. The Saranians were not a race that would forgive and forget so easily, and since one of the two ships was able to escape, there was no chance the Saranians wouldn't learn about what happened here today.

The N'Gati had been at war with the Saranians in one way or another for almost a century now, and firefights like the one that had just happened were very common. The N'Gati explained how the Saranians preferred ambushes using their cloaking technology to their advantage, allowing them to attack with more ships previously unseen by their prey. The N'Gati also liked the idea of the Edenians being able to detect the Saranian ships even while cloaked. It would be of great advantage to the them since they had lost countless fights because of it. The captain liked the idea they had something the N'Gati were interested in, but he also knew Soren wouldn't be very happy if he shared such technology with a race they barely knew. Atan explained the Edenians were not against the exchange of technology, but that they would usually need to learn more about the race with whom they would do the exchanging. The N'Gati were a little disappointed, but they reasoned there was still a way to gain such technology. They would just have to befriend the Edenians and show them they were a peaceful race who only wanted to be able to protect what was theirs.

The N'Gati informed the captain how the Saranians were a problem, but that there were other races as well that were even worse, but they were lucky their territory was relatively far away and that except for a few skirmishes, those races weren't interested in this region of space. Now it was time for the captain to give his story. The problem was that Soren gave clear instructions to not tell any race in this galaxy that they were from another galaxy. Instead, he had to lie, telling how they had traveled to this region of the galaxy after their home planet's star had started expanding, making life on their planet impossible. He told them how they had traveled for years to first reach and then establish a colony five thousand light-years from their current position. The colony was small, with less than a hundred thousand souls in it and that he had also lost contact with the rest of their race. Soren thought how telling other races they were from another galaxy would incite fear in them as nobody here even knew such a thing was possible. It would also bring many questions that they wouldn't want to answer. A small lie about their true origin was the best way to go, at least in Soren's opinion.

The N'Gati told the captain they would send a ship with a delegation to their new home if they would allow it, also informing the captain they would be pleased if they did the same. The N'Gati gave the location of one of their planets where they would be more than welcome and the captain promised as soon as a ship would be free they would come for a visit. In the end, their first contact with the N'Gati had gone even better than they could have hoped for. The only problem now were the Saranians, the enemy of the N'Gati and now also the enemy of the Edenians.

While the captain was talking to the N'Gati on the large display, the crew of the Intrepid had made a complete system check, also having to repair a few conduits that had blown up during the battle. As the conversation with the N'Gati ended and the ship was certified to continue its voyage, the captain ordered to leave toward their next destination. The database had a large list of races and the ship's mission was to visit as many as it could before returning home.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Hyperspace  
**_Stardate: 2085.84_

The Apollo, the fourth built Daedalus class BC-304 battlecruiser commanded by Colonel Abraham Ellis, sailed calmly through hyperspace at a tenth of its maximum speed. He was patrolling the Perseus arm in the Milky Way Galaxy and there was no need for rush. Still, even with a tenth of its top speed, the ship was traveling at almost a thousand light-years every hour, a speed unimaginable by any other race native to the Milky Way galaxy that wasn't one of the four great races.

The life of a sailor can be a dull one, especially when tasked with patrol duty, but all crew members including their captain were professionals and they would never complain, always performing their duties as it was expected of them. As it was, the Apollo was performing at peak efficiency, the only way a ship commanded by Ellis could ever be. His crew never thought of him as their friend. They never went for drinks together or played jokes, but one thing was certain, all members of the ship respected their captain. Ellis also didn't complain. He thought a captain should never be friend with his crew. He firmly believed a military commander above all must be professional.

As the ship continued gliding through the endless tunnel known as hyperspace, one of the crew, the one manning the sensors, noticed something, "Sir, I've just picked up a hyperspace window opening up only seventeen light-years from our current position."

Ellis thought about it, thinking of where they were and where the hyperspace window could have opened, and he realized there was no star system with inhabited planets anywhere in the vicinity, "Can you find out what kind of ship made that window?"

"No sir. The emissions we picked up suggest a large vessel created the hyperspace window."

"Can you be more specific?"

"Uh… yes sir. The ship must be approximately a mile long."

"Could it be the Ori?" Ellis said, thinking how the Ori ships were of that approximate size.

"No sir, it was a completely different pattern."

Ellis relaxed a little. The Ori ships were powerful, his ship hadn't been upgraded with the latest in weapons, he didn't have a micro-ZPM to boost his power and he knew the Ori had sensors capable of scanning for ships in hyperspace. "Set on an intercept course and engage our stealth system. Be ready to raise shields the moment we revert to normal space."

The pilot complied, changing the ship's course. For a ship that can travel a thousand light-years with the engines at a tenth of their capacity, the 17 light-years were a trinket the ship could cross in a blink of an eye.

The ship tore the fabric of space, spewing out of the rapture into normal space. In front of them, a ship of the said size was standing motionless.

"Sir, they haven't raised their shields and I'm not detecting any active weapons."

This was good news. At least it was for the captain, "What else can you tell me about the ship?"

The crew member worked a little more, using the ship's powerful sensors to probe the unknown vessel in the hope of finding something more about it, "The ship's hyperdrive looks damaged sir, and the ship is working at minimal power."

Another good news,"Hail them."

It took a moment, but eventually an image formed on the main display. What Ellis and the rest of the crew saw, startled them. They all have read the mission reports of the SG-1 and of the people they had met in their long career, and even though Ellis had never met the Tollans, he could recognize the man on the display, "Narim?"

"How do you know who I am?" Narim replied.

"I'm sorry, I was just startled by seeing you since we thought you were dead. We thought all Tollans were dead", Ellis said, taking some time to compose. "Let me introduce myself. I am Colonel Abraham Ellis, commander of the Terran battlecruiser Apollo. I have seen your picture from the SG-1 reports I've read."

"Terran battlecruiser? You are from Earth?" Narim had never heard the humans from Earth call themselves Terrans, but he knew the meaning of the word 'Terra' very well.

"We are Narim. We thought the Goa'uld wiped you out?"

Narim sighed, with thousand questions popping in his mind, "They almost did. This ship is all that remains. We used this ship when we had to relocate our people from Tollan to Tollana, when our first home was destroyed and we were able to use it when the attack on Tollana started. I'm sorry, but I still don't understand how humans from Earth can have a spaceship. Your technology was so far behind that you could have never built one by yourself."

"Actually, our first ship was built a year after your apparent demise. We had some help though."

"Help? From whom?"

"From the Asgard. They supplied our first functioning hyperdrive after we lost ours and after we helped them with a little replicator problem."

"Ah, that explains a few things."

"Narim, what happened to you?" Ellis asked with a worried tone. The display clearly showed Narim had seen better days.

"We fled our planet and we decided to go as far as we could so that the Goa'uld could not find us. We are fleeing ever since," Narim said, continuing with a more somber tone. "Our people still haven't recovered from the horror of that day."

"I know how you feel. Almost five years ago our planet was attacked by the Goa'uld Ba'al. More than twenty million people died that day."

Narim's eyes widened in shock. Even though he knew the people from Earth numbered in billions, such a loss must have been felt by everyone, "I am sorry to hear that, I really am. Are you still fighting the Goa'uld?"

"No Narim, the Goa'uld are no more. We and the Jaffa have taken care of them."

"The Goa'uld are dead? All of them?"

"Not all, but those that still live have fled far away and we and the Jaffa are still chasing them."

"How long ago was that?"

"Two and a half years after you disappeared."

Narim bit his lips in frustration. They had been on the run for more than six years, "It would have been a good thing if we knew that."

Ellis thought how Narim was dead on, but he refrained from saying anything. Those years spent in space must have been awful for them, "Look Narim, is there something we can do for you. My scans are telling me your ship is in bad shape."

"You are right; our hyperdrive has just stopped working. Our engineers are trying to repair it, but this is the third time it happened and I'm not certain they can repair it this time, not out here at least."

"Tell us what you need and we will provide it for you. Or if you want, a lift can be arranged too."

"I don't think your ship can accommodate ten thousand people."

"I mean, our ship can tow your ship though hyperspace."

"Your ship is more than five times smaller. You can't possibly tow us?"

"Our ship may be smaller, but when the Asgard make a hyperdrive, they make it the right way."

"If the war is over, then maybe you could tow us back home."

'_Crap!_' Ellis thought, "Um… about that, there is a slight problem."

"Which is?"

"Tollana has been our first colony for more than three years now. There are more than a million Terrans on the planet. After we had the means to come to your planet by ship we decided to look for any survivors. We found none, so we decided to use the planet as our first colony. I'm sorry Narim."

"And you call that a _slight_ problem. Not that I look forward to see that planet ever again, but there is nowhere else we can go."

"Don't worry about that Narim. You have somewhere to go. We can tow you to Terra Nova, our second colony. There we can provide you with whatever you need. We can help you Narim, we have the means now."

"That sounds reasonable."

"Let your people know you are about to be towed."

The connection ended and the Apollo took position above the much larger vessel. Slowly the ship pushed forward, opening a much larger hyperspace window and speeding inside it with the Tollan ship in tow.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy –Terra Nova  
**_Stardate: 2085.91_

It had taken less than thirty minutes to reach Terra Nova. The voyage was uneventful and had lasted a lot longer since the ship had to push their engines to their limit with the Tollan ship in tow. Once they reached orbit over Terra Nova, the Tollan ship had quickly descended into the planet's atmosphere and, per instructions, landed on a clearing near the colony. Both the colony and their HQ had been already informed of the discovery and it didn't take long for the Enterprise to show up.

Jack and Sam were quickly beamed down to the surface in order to meet with the Tollans. They waited patiently as the Tollans started pouring out of their ship. Other Terrans also reached the landing site in order to provide help whenever needed, with their first concern being the Tollans' health. A voyage of several years is not an easy feat and they could already predict the state in which the surviving Tollans must be right now.

As Narim descended the ramp, Jack and Sam smiled at their friend. Although, their smile didn't last long because they quickly saw who was behind him. Descending the ramp was also Travell, a person neither Jack nor Sam wanted to see.

"Narim! It is good to see you are alive," Sam said, really happy to see him.

"It is also good to know the words of your demise were only bad propaganda. We are happy to see you have survived, at least for the most of you," Jack said, looking at Travell and not being able to leave that part out. He really didn't like her and he knew she would only make more problems for them.

"It is good to see you too," Narim said, looking intently at Sam and completely ignoring Jack.

Jack understood. The man must have gone through hell and just came back, and the last thing he needed right now was his sarcasm.

"How is this possible?" the voice of Travell was heard.

"Hello Councilor Travell. Is something wrong?" Jack said in his chirpy voice.

"I do not understand. How could you have built a colony such as this in such a short time?" Travell said looking at the city in the distance. It was much more than what she expected to find.

Jack moved closer to Travell, wanting to leave some alone time for Sam and Narim. The two must have picked up immediately because they moved away quickly, leaving Jack to deal with Travell. "Well Councilor, as you can see, we apparently can."

"Is it true what Narim said? You have spaceships?"

"That we have, and lots of them. My personal one is just above us."

"Your personal ship? You were a Colonel in your military. How could a colonel have a personal ship?"

"I'm not a colonel anymore. Now I pretty much have the same title you had among your people, High Councilor Travell."

"Oh, I see. Many things have changed since our departure. What is this I've heard Tollana is one of your colonies?"

"It's true. Tollana was the first planet we have colonized. We have more than a million people there."

"But Tollana is our world."

Jack sighed, "Tollana _was_ your world Councilor Travell. It isn't anymore."

"This is preposterous! Tollana is our planet."

"Councilor Travell, you must understand you were gone for almost seven years and we now have a large colony there that can not be moved. I'm sorry, but there is nothing I can do about that, but we can help you in other ways."

"Such as?"

"Such as finding you a suitable planet and helping you rebuild. After all, Tollana was completely destroyed by the Goa'uld, and you'll need our help to rebuild your infrastructure. If you want, I can show you the planet we have in mind for you."

"You already have a planet for us?" This was going too fast for her.

"We do. We wanted to make the planet our next colony, but I think it would be good for you too. The planet is rich in Trinium and other precious materials and I'm sure that we, with the help of the three other great races, can help you build whatever you need in a very short time," Jack explained.

Travell looked puzzled for a moment, not understanding one thing in Jack's sentence, "The _other _great races?"

"Yes, well, you know how it goes. You help others and sooner or later you get your reward, sometimes at least. The Nox, the Asgard, the Edenians and the Terrans of course have formed the Second Great Alliance exactly two years ago."

"The Edenians? Who are they?"

"They are a race of very advanced humans in the Andromeda galaxy led by an Alterran."

"Alterran?" Travell was starting to feel dizzy. More answers she got more questions she had.

"Maybe you know them as the Ancients, or the Gatebuilders."

"The Gatebuilders are still alive?"

"One is, or there are rumors there are two of them now. I'm not sure," Jack said, having heard rumors of Liam having turned Soren into one. How, he didn't know.

"Oh, when I said a lot has changed, I didn't know how much."

"And you don't know half of it, but we will fill you in later, you don't have to worry about that. Just promise me one thing."

"And what would that be?" Travell asked dreading what the request would be.

"Promise me you'll start making real defenses for your next world please. I would really hate for you to have survived Tanith's attack, only to perish seven years later."

"Why? Narim told me most of the Goa'uld are dead and the others are on the run."

"Well, let just say we have a few loose ends lurking around. I will fill you in with the details after you eat a nice meal and at least one good night of sleep. Deal?"

Travell stopped for a moment before replying, "Deal."

Jack was glad. Their conversation had gone better than he could have hoped for. She didn't push the problem with the ownership of Tollana, which was a good thing since he really didn't want to have to fight her on the matter. She probably had realized that if they were willing to help them rebuild on another planet, it was better than having to do it alone, even if it wasn't on Tollana. From the way she didn't force the issue, Jack also understood she probably didn't want to go back to that planet either. After all, Tollana wasn't the planet where she was born or where she grew up, Tollan was. Also, putting in the little information they were now one of the four great races must have helped a lot. She was also the one who had ordered the attack on Earth and she was guilty of that, but Jack thought the issue could be raised on a later time, if at all. Having spent seven years on a spaceship in the void of space was punishment enough; at least that was in Jackćs book.

The Tollans were receiving the help they desperately needed. There were a lot of them in a very bad shape. On their ship, the food and the variety of it had been very limited and many were malnourished or having some deficiency that had resulted from their diet, with some to the point where they had to be placed in the hospital under constant watch. There were also the psychological effects from the attack and from the long isolation that most of them were feeling. A few shrinks informed Jack that a lot of Tollans were suffering from PTSD and that now that they had finally stopped running, the symptoms would surface even more. They would need help, and lots of it, of that Jack was certain.

* * *

**Senari Galaxy – Liam's ship  
**_Stardate: 2091.47_

For the first time Liam found himself traveling in hyperspace through the Senari galaxy. He and Mial were on an important mission to meet with the rebels and start planning the deployment of the nanites that should theoretically be able to stop the neural implant's subliminal control over the Senari people. Although Liam was confident what he had developed would work, only real testing on live subjects could prove that.

As the ship jumped out of hyperspace, the main screen displayed a blue world in front of them. Liam immediately began scanning the planet in order to find the Senari settlement. To his dismay, the sensors found none.

"Mial, the sensors are not detecting any settlement on the planet," Liam said puzzled.

"Do not trust the sensors. The settlement is there."

"You are saying you have a cloak capable of hiding your people?"

"Not cloak. Cloak uses too much energy. Cloak too complicated to hide only Senari on the planet, but not plants and trees."

That was true. Making a cloak that would hide only the Senari, but leave trees and anything else that would usually be on a planet was difficult to achieve. On the other hand, technology that could fool Alterran's sensors was rare, Nox rare in fact, "Then how?"

"Mial does not know specifics. Rebels needed way to fool Vargas from being found. Sensors simply don't see what the eyes could see," Mial replied cryptically.

Liam thought the Senari and the Nox should never meet. Those two together would make conversations horrible, "Is it time to send the message you gave me?"

"It is."

Liam sent the message Mial had prerecorded and then waited, and waited a little more. Suddenly the sensors started picking up large numbers of life signs on the planet in pockets of thousands. The rebels were not after all, such a small community. The final count reached two hundred thousands of them on the planet below. Liam looked at the console in front of him as it beeped, "They are sending us coordinates where to meet."

"As expected," Niam said.

Liam instructed the ship to beam them on the surface, and the next second, they were inside a large building. Around them, a group of puzzled Senari was intently looking at the two newcomers.

One of them approached Mial, "Mial? You are alive!"

"I am Nala," Mial replied with a smile, clearly happy to see her. The two of them got closer, touching their foreheads with their eyes closed.

Once they broke apart, Nala asked, "Where have you been for more than two years? We thought you died when your ship never returned."

"It was fortune I survived the battle at the anomaly and even a greater fortune I found friends that can help us," Mial said, looking at Liam.

Nala scrutinized Liam from head to toe, "Is his race the one that stopped our people?"

"It is, and more."

"More?"

"He found a cure Nala. This is why it took us so much to come here. He was working on a cure."

"A cure?"

Liam decided it was a good time to say something, "Hi Nala, I'm Liam. What Mial is saying is true, I have found a cure, but it needs testing."

"What kind of cure? And what kind of testing?" this was all going too fast.

"I have created nanites that can stop the impulses the neural interface is sending in order to control your people, but I need to test it on a large number of subjects to be sure it works."

"A large number of subjects is not a problem. How do you intend to administer the cure?" Nala asked, but she would clearly rather spend some time talking to Mial than discussing this.

"Through the air. The nanite can be released in the atmosphere and they can be absorbed through the air you breathe or through your skin. The nanites will then find their way into the subject's brain and attach to the neural implant."

"Will the nanites block the other impulses the neural implant is sending, the one that regulate other important functions?" Nala asked. Apparently she was very well versed on the subject.

"No, but testing is the only way to be certain."

"If you need a large number of subjects, we know of a new colony where there are already thousands of my people living there."

"That would be the perfect testing ground Nala."

"Once you spread the nanites, how long until results can be noticed?"

"I don't know. The nanites should start working almost immediately, but there is still the problem of having lived their entire lives with the subliminal messages telling your people what to do that needs to be overcome. Even without the subliminal messages it will take time for them to understand that what they have been doing for so long is not what they really want. How long it will take, I think it will vary from subject to subject."

"Can the nanites be detected, or neutralized?"

"Not easily, but it's possible if you know what to look for. But even then there is no way to disable them without killing the subject, not with the technology at your disposal. Can we go immediately to try the nanites?"

After thinking for a while, and after having seen the encouraging nod given by Mial, she replied, "We can, and we will. Let me talk first with Mial and the others in private and then we will go."

Liam nodded in understanding, knowing this wasn't an easy decision and things were really moving fast. When Mial told him that, if he was able to convince Nala of the viability of the plan, the others would follow her recommendation, Liam wasn't sure. After all, trusting a stranger with such a delicate matter wasn't easy, but when Nala and Mial returned half an hour later with the others having already agreed, he had to change his mind. Apparently Mial knew his people well, and the futile attempts to save their race for the past countless years, must have also made the rebels come to such decision much easier.

The three of them beamed back aboard Liam's ship, quickly entering hyperspace directed to the coordinates where the testing would take place, a newly established small Senari colony, the perfect place for their testing.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**


	7. Politics

**Author's note: New chapter's up.**

**Senrab Nomis: **The Edenians took several stargates with them and they will use them, but they can't contact home because of the ridiculous distance. The three ZPMs are simply not enough to connect back home and without the ability to contact home, they are on their own. Good idea about the drone fighters though. Maybe I could use it, somehow.

I didn't like the way the show simply wiped out the Tollans completely either. After all they were a very advanced race and since they were able to colonize another planet, they should have some spare ships they could have used to escape.

Mial said 'the sensors cannot see what the eye can see'. The technology is more in terms of fooling sensors than making someone invisible. The only thing I can think of that it can be used on large scale that hides, let's say people and buildings, but leaves trees and other things on the planet visible.

The problem as I see it with infecting key people in their leadership is that the process is not instantaneous. The influence stops, but they were still raised believing the Vargas are their friends and that what they have been doing for so long is the right thing to do. Indoctrination is very difficult to… _cure._

**Epi: **The stars close to earth will be canvased, but searching the entire galaxy for the Ori, every star system, it simply isn't viable. Maybe in a few decades yes, but…

Once the Terran organization turns into a fully recognized nation or race, there will be changes of course. This here is a difficult one to write about too. For example, does the Asgard have a Senate? Or do they simply have their High Council and that's it? The show never showed that. My idea is to try to create something different than the current model on Earth. Having such system now on Earth, doesn't mean it is the best that it can be. In our distant past, people probably thought slavery, or one leader like a king or emperor with all the power, was a perfectly good system and that there can't possibly be anything better. Well, probably slaves thought differently but…

Somewhere in the first book I wrote that the plasma bolts fired from the ground cannons were the size of half a football field. Can you imagine how big those cannons are? I always thought that ground cannons should be more powerful simply because you don't have the space limitations you have on ships or satellites. You can make them bigger and you can power them from a variety of sources, like directly connecting them to the power grid, or by constructing dedicated reactors, again not having to worry about the size like you do when you build them for ships. Also, little things like the cannons creating large amounts of heat should diminish the efficiency of such weapons on ships and satellites. That is, if you don't want the crew to get cooked or the weapon overheating. On the ground on the other hand you can make large cooling systems capable of increasing the fire rate and strength of a weapon, without risking the weapon breaking down under sustained fire.

Giving such technologies to others is always risky. Mind that such weapons can easily be used against the Terrans too. By giving the technology to others, who's to say that it won't be used against you, be stolen from them, or even sold to a third party? There could be Aschen or Lucian spies on any of those races' planets. Can you imagine the Terrans visiting a Lucian planet and getting hit by their own weapons?

For the station I have another race in mind, an interlude to something bigger in Pegasus.

No, they have cameras AND sensors. Sensors are great no doubt. Imagine having the same sensors as those on Atlantis, allowing you to detect life signs everywhere on the station, but is this enough to know exactly who committed a certain crime, are sensors enough to detect and recognize perpetrator A slipping a suspicious envelope to perpetrator B? Are life sign detectors enough to unequivocally prove someone committed a crime in a court or some other equivalent judicial body? Or is it better to have a clear recording of what happened, frame by frame? Also, sensors have limitations, especially passive one. Active sensors are the most precise, sending a specific form of radiation and calculating the result of the radiation's interaction with anything it hits, like radars or x-ray scanning machines, or if you will in the stargate universe let's say subspace sensors. Such active sensors are also invasive. Would you like to live on a station that constantly bombards you with radiation of whatever form, like you were constantly under a CT scanner or X-ray machine, just because they need a clear picture of what's happening on the station?

**Ruby Pena:** There will be some mention of the Tollans, not much, but I will mention them here and there.

**Stormwolf3710:** to tell you the truth I watched Babylon Five only sporadically and it was more than a decade ago. Maybe I could too set some time and re-watch the show in its entirety… if I somehow find the time.

**James0416: **First, I'm glad you like the story. Let's now dive into the answer.

Can you answer me one question? Why did the Asgard select Orilla as their new homeworld, rich in Neutronium, if their beaming can make any matter in the universe? Second, let's call stuff their real names. Materials with a certain number of nucleons and electrons are called atoms and same or different atoms can combine to make molecules. As far as I know, the beaming system can beam, or teleport, something from point A to point B. Mind that there are many stories on this site that I read attributing almost magical properties to the beaming system, but in canon there is no mention of the Asgard beaming system creating matter (atoms) from nothing or even from energy. I can go as far as to say that the Asgard possess matter synthesizers that can take raw materials and produce whatever molecular structure they need, like taking oxygen and hydrogen and synthesizing H2O, water. The same way, they can take trinium, naquadah and carbon, and synthesize the carbon-trinuim-naquadah alloy for their ship's hull, but they still need the raw materials.

Furthermore, you need to take into account that, let's say they have the technology to convert energy into matter, whatever matter, it still takes you approx. 5 megatons of energy to make a mere pound of matter, which is okay for small things, but not for making large quantities.

Energy absorbing shields of the Destiny? I distinctively recall watching the episode in which the Destiny employed energy collectors on its underside to collect energy from a star and not its shields. Also, if the Destiny's shields could absorb such amounts of energy from a star, the ship would be impossible to destroy since any energy weapon fired on the ship would only serve to recharge the ship's energy reserves, wouldn't it?

Our Sun for example irradiates 63 Megawatts per square meter at the surface (it sounds a lot, I know, but not as much as someone would think). If we take that the Destiny's entire underside is exposed to the sun and is used to absorb the sun's energy through energy collectors (let's say 100,000 square meters surface of the energy collectors, very optimistic, it should definitely be less) we get 6.3 Terrawatts. Let suppose then that the Destiny spent ten minutes in the show to recharge (the flyby felt shorter, but let's say ten minutes) the ship receives 1.05 terrawatts-hour of energy. This is approximately 1 Megaton of pure energy and you need 5 Megatons to make one pound of matter if you use Einstein's formula E=mc2. And this is only if the system is perfect with no loss of energy and if the ship flew at spitting distance from the star's surface, which is also impossible.

I have read so many stories on this site, and from time to time I'm also confused on what a specific technology can or cannot do. In my story, I'm trying to combine what was showed in the show with real physics, which in short means that matter cannot be created from nothing and that it takes time to build something, even with the advanced technologies they have. Also, this way, I'm trying to make the story believable and compatible with the past. Like, why the Alterrans and Asgard never had thousands of ships at their disposal, just by creating ships from thin air. If they had the technology to beam whatever matter they needed, they would have had thousands of ships, which is not what the show had showed.

I hope this helps.

**Thanks to my beta, and let's now dive into the story. I hope you enjoy this chapter too.**

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**_Stardate: 2225.91_

"Crap!"

Daniel turned looking back in the general direction from where he thought he had heard somebody yelling. The corridor had many doors, but he was almost hundred percent certain it came from Jack's office. He was also more than certain the one who had yelled had in fact been Jack. He decided, since he had nothing better to do, to check it out. You never knew with Jack if it was actually something that justifiably required cursing, or Jack simply saw the new pile of paperwork on his desk and almost got a stroke.

Daniel walked back, entering Jack's office and staring at what he thought was a very pissed off Jack. "Jack, what's wrong?" Daniel asked, at the same moment also noticing the television showing the US Congress in session and immediately understanding the reason for Jack's cursing.

"Did you see that? They did it again!" a very pissed Jack replied.

Daniel sighed, "Jack, we already knew it would probably happen."

"Daniel, this is the third year they do this. I thought this year would really be the one, you know."

"What did the president say?"

"He promised me this year was the year, that's what he said. And yet again, the Congress voted against it."

"Apparently there are too many powerful people behind this and even the president can't do miracles."

"I really don't get it, I really don't. It's good for everyone," Jack said while rubbing his temple.

"I know, but there's no money in free energy and you know as well as I do how many very powerful people don't like that fact," Daniel said referring to the technology the Terrans had given to Earth more than three years ago, allowing them to create massive fusion reactors capable of supplying the entire planet with clean energy at a fraction of the cost of current energy production. Adding the fact that the oil business was already taking a big hit from other technologies having been given to the world, it was easily understandable why the Congress had voted against it. "What was this year's reason for shutting down the project?"

"It's always the same, just like last year and the year before that. Not enough money to invest in such a project," Jack said frustrated. The Congress stated that currently a project such as this one, that involved changing the entire power grid of the US, would cost over 50 billion dollars, which they currently didn't have. "I have to go speak with the president and see what he has to say on the matter. He promised me this year would be different you know."

"Jack, don't go around blaming the president for something he clearly wanted as much as we did. This is his second mandate and I'm sure he's having a hard time accepting that he won't be the one president who changed the world."

"Yeah, I know."

"What about the other countries?"

Jack snorted at the question, "What do you think? They're doing the same as the US Congress. They are all in cahoots on this."

Daniel sighed again. This was a problem and he could understand Jack's frustration perfectly. Making heaven on Earth, so to speak, was Jack's pet project, completely supported by the rest of the Council. The project involved cleaning up the planet from pollution by getting rid of the massive use of fossil fuel and the first step was to start producing clean energy, something that apparently wasn't as easy to achieve as they thought it would be, even when you have the technology. The next step was the introduction of cheap power cells capable of powering cars for days with the ability to recharge almost instantly by just plugging them into the electric power grid. Once this was achieved, the next step would be to introduce materials that can easily replace the need to chop off half the Amazon forest to make coffee tables, all this in the attempt to save an already strained ecosystem. Daniel looked around Jack's office, noticing there was not even one piece of furniture made of wood in it. Even Jack's table was made of glass, metal and some kind of material that did look like wood, but in fact was some easily produced polymer. What kind, he didn't know exactly.

"I need to go see the president," Jack said with determination in his voice. This time it looked like he was really determined to get to the bottom of this.

Daniel knew there was no point in arguing with Jack when he was so determined. He had witnessed that expression on many occasions and he knew it didn't bode well, "Alright Jack, but don't do anything too rush, and remember, the president is not the enemy. I have to go now. See you tomorrow."

Jack just nodded, still immersed in his thoughts and having barely registered when Daniel exited the office. He used his comm. device and the next moment he was beamed away.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – White House  
**_Stardate: 2225.93_

The president and Jack became great friends in the last few years, but it still didn't mean Hayes liked it when Jack would just barge in his office unannounced. He was still the president after all, and some kind of protocol had to be followed. Still, the president knew what Jack's sudden appearance was all about and he decided he'd let it slide, this time, "Jack, nice to see you here. Somehow I think I know what the reason for your sudden arrival is."

"Well Mr. President, I'm a little disappointed."

Hayes sighed, "I'm disappointed too Jack, and more than you know."

Jack noticed the last part of Hayes' sentence, understanding that something that the president was planning for simply didn't happen, "Oh, that's interesting. Please, do tell."

"Several senators that assured me they were on board with me on this one and that I'm more than certain were pro 'Clean Earth' have overnight decided to change their minds. Somehow I suspect they were pressured to do it against their better judgment."

Jack didn't like how this had sounded, "You mean, political pressure... or some other type of pressure?"

"I don't know, but I can't imagine these people buckling so easily and yet, somehow, they did."

This was not good. Jack knew that if the president was certain those people would have voted pro 'Clean Earth', there was a great chance they had been pressured in some _other way_. Even the biggest supporter can be forced to reconsider his standing if threatened in the right way. Jack was definitely sensing some foul play here.

He was about to reply when Senator Carl Strom, probably the president's intended quest before Jack had barged in, entered the room. Jack's face turned sour when he saw the man. He knew him very well from the time he was head of the by now disbanded IOA. Immediately after the disbandment, Carl Storm went into politics and through the IOA he had probably acquired many powerful connections, enough to be able to gain enough support to become a senator in less than a year.

"Senator Strom, what a… nice surprise," Jack said with clear sarcasm. Jack also knew Strom was one of the senators that didn't need convincing to vote _against_ 'Clean Earth'.

"Jack, what are you doing here? Oh, of course; it must be the Congress voting against your precious reactors," Strom said, gloating.

"Something like that… and it's High Councilor O'Neill to you, Senator Strom," Jack replied, not liking the senator's pretentiousness. Actually, he didn't like anything about the senator.

"Well, if you put it like that, then it's Sen…" Strom said, wanting to continue the pissing contest, but then he realized that Jack indeed had already addressed him with the proper title.

Although Hayes would have nothing against watching these two getting into a fist fight right in front of him, especially knowing that Jack would beat the crap out of the senator and probably get away with it, he knew he had to stop it, "Please, let's stop this pissing contest before it gets any worse, shall we?"

On the other hand, Jack was of another opinion, "Tell me Senator, how much money and favors have you pushed down your pocket for making this vote go south?"

The president simply rolled his eyes. He knew there was no stopping this anymore.

"I'm hurt by your insinuation _Jack_. I'm just a public servant who thinks of what's best for his country and nothing more," Strom replied, smiling wickedly.

"Sure you are," Jack said quickly, pushing forward and getting very close to Strom.

"Wha…" Strom flinched, clearly under the impression he was about to get punched.

"Jack! That's enough!" Hayes shouted, this time leaving out any pleasantries. This had gone too far.

Jack stopped, turning to face the president, he as well realizing how close he had been to explode. Apparently, after so many years of dealing with politicians from this and other worlds, his fuse had become very short. "I apologize, Mr. President. It appears certain people can make me lose my usually calm temper."

"It's okay Jack. I know the feeling," Hayes said, looking straight at Strom.

Strom was already startled by Jacks sudden reaction, but the president's look told him he was definitely not among friends here. "Well Jack, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Maybe you'll have more luck next year."

Hayes didn't know if Strom really wanted to get punched in the face or what, but poking the bear like this was never a good idea. He had to stop Jack before this went completely south, "Jack, we'll talk more on a later time, but for now, Senator Strom and I have some things we need to discuss in private."

Jack sighed, understanding and also concurring how the best thing indeed was for him to leave. He nodded to the president and without bothering to even look at Strom he disappeared in a bright flash of light.

The president looked at Strom with apparent bewilderment.

"What?" Strom asked, puzzled.

"What makes you believe Jack would not beat the crap out of you right here in the oval office?"

"He wouldn't dare," Strom replied.

"Why not?"

Strom was about to reply, but he stopped, thinking a little more. He didn't know how to answer.

The president shook his head, "You're an idiot you know that. That man could have hit you so hard that your head would still be spinning right now, and you wouldn't be able to do anything since no living entity would ever revoke his diplomatic immunity for something like this. Hell, he'd probably get points for hitting a politician too! And the day that man also realizes that he can hit politicians without any repercussion, god help us all! And also, if you think that pissing him off on one of his pet projects is a good idea, you're more deluded than I thought you were."

Strom face wasn't a happy face. His ego had made him really misinterpret the situation. Somehow the idea of being beaten in the Oval Office never crossed his mind. He would have to be more careful in the future when dealing with Jack and the likes of him.

* * *

**Furling Galaxy – Aboard the Intrepid  
**_Stardate: 2229.33_

The intrepid decelerated at the edge of the system, dropping its warp field and reverting to normal space. It was interesting to notice that the mass of a star could negatively influence a warp field, sometimes by even collapsing it completely. This was something the Edenians had never experienced with a hyperdrive. Although it wasn't common practice for a ship to drop out of hyperspace inside a planet's atmosphere, it wasn't theoretically impossible. With this drive instead, you had to drop a lot sooner and then slowly crawl towards the intended planet.

The Intrepid and its crew had finally arrived to the place where the N'Gati had told them they could find many more races native of this region of space. They had also warned them that not all races present here would be very forthcoming and that they should be extremely careful when interacting with some of them.

"What can you tell me about the system?" the captain asked the crewman manning the sensors.

"Only one planet in the system has a breathable atmosphere. I'm detecting a small city on the planet with what appears to be a few hundred thousand beings from dozens of different races. There is also a space station above the planet. I'm detecting several large weapon's emplacements on the station. I wouldn't go against it if is not necessary."

"Noted," Atan replied before turning toward the helm. "Helm, let's go see what the planet has to offer."

The helmsman obeyed the orders, pushing the ship forward, straight for the planet in question. It didn't take long before they received a call.

"Sir, we are being hailed by the space station," the comm. officer said.

"On screen Lieutenant."

The screen quickly switched from space to show the face of an alien whose race the captain had never seen before. Without any pleasantries, or being fazed by the fact that to the alien they were a new race as well, he spoke, "Ships are not allowed closer than five hundred thousand kilometers from the station or the planet. Only smaller vessels are allowed docking with the station or landing on the planet's surface."

"We apologize, we didn't know about the rule," the captain said, nodding at the helm to move the ship back, outside the range the alien told them to. "We are moving now. Is there anything else we should know?"

The alien made a smirk, making a strange noise as he did so, just before ending the connection.

"Apparently not," the captain surmised by the alien's reaction. "No ship near the planet means we will have to send one of our shuttlecraft on the planet's surface. Inform first recon team to take a shuttle down on the planet and check it out."

Quickly orders went through the ship and in less than ten minutes the little flyer was in space, en route for the planet.

* * *

**Furling Galaxy – Batari Planet  
**_Stardate: 2229.45_

Aaron, the captain of Recon One really didn't know what to expect down there, or what to _wear_ for the occasion. He was more than certain carrying assault rifles was out of the question since he wasn't going into a combat zone, but not carrying any guns seemed a little too _naked_ for his taste. He decided they would go with their standard recon nanosuits and with their plasma guns alone and see what happens.

The shuttle had been directed to a small landing pad by the control tower. There were many questions they didn't know the answers to, mostly because those who instructed them where to land were rude and completely against answering any question the pilot had directed at them. It appeared as if they would have to go blind and see what happens.

The landing pad where they had landed was on the roof of a large building. Near them, there were many more shuttles already landed and a few just in the process of taking off. Clearly, this looked like a very busy hub of sort.

Finally settling down, the four members of Recon One exited the shuttle, immediately noticing how they could barely keep from not engaging their suit's re-breathers from how low the oxygen level in the air was. This planet looked very inhospitable, a place no one would like to call home, and from what they could gather all around them, the _clientele_ was not any better. This planet looked just like the perfect place to make shady businesses far away from any law enforcement and the people here definitely knew that. At least, if the numbers of guns these people were packing was any indication. Maybe they should have taken their rifles after all.

"So, Captain, what do you think about this place?" Garen asked Aaron in a clearly derisive tone.

"I think that, from now on, we don't use our ranks when we talk to each other. We use our names. I don't think these people here like any form of law enforcement or military for that matter."

"Sure thing Cap… I mean, sure thing Aaron."

"That's better. Alright then, I see that carrying guns here is not an issue so we'll keep ours. I still think that carrying our rifles is a little too much so we'll leave them here. We have our locator beacons so if we need any additional firepower, the shuttle can beam the stuff to us or we can beam out. Now, a good thing would be to find a directory of some kind to see where is what on this god forsaken planet. Let's move out."

The other three members of the team nodded in understanding before moving toward the elevator, the only place where they could leave the roof of the building. Aaron though was still thinking how this looked like the beginning of a very long mission. Their task was clear. Meet as many races as possible, without making too much trouble, and try to gain as much information as possible regarding the ancient race that had inhabited this galaxy a long time ago. Simple enough, in theory, but in reality only by making troubles can you meet the right people, people with connections. At least, that was the probable case here.

Exiting the elevator on the first available floor and moving inside the large room, the team found themselves standing in what they could only categorize as, a large bar. Gambling tables in the center with people playing some strange games they had never seen before, while around them people were drinking some strangely colored drinks at several distinct bars. Further down, on the opposite side, several VIP tables could be spotted by the team. There, Aaron thought, businesses were being made while the rest of the room served for entertainment. One of the first rules Aaron had learned in his career was to never jump head first into an unknown situation. When dealing with aliens from other worlds, that rule took a whole new level. Instructing his team to sit down at the first available table, the captain decided it was time to observe. Quietly.

Taking his time, the team watched events unfold all around them, learning and waiting for the right moment. The first thing they had learned was the local currency system. Apparently, you could bring any precious metal and exchange it for some local currency at the bar. Even though Aaron was more than certain the exchange rate at the bar was going to be a complete rip off, he didn't have the time to find a bank or barter for a better price. He used his comm. device to call the shuttle, instructing the pilot to beam some precious metals on the table in front of him. The pilot complied and the next moment an ingot of platinum, as well as another of iridium, formed in front of him. Once he reached the bar, the cashier looked very pleased to see the two ingots of different metals. Apparently, even to them those materials were precious enough to warrant salivating profusely. And this alien did salivate a lot. That deal, as he had expected, favored the cashier but Aaron didn't care. He now had the money to start.

While Aaron was getting the money, Garen had spent that time looking intently at one of the many gambling tables. It looked as a pretty simple game in which you rolled some dice with strange symbols on them and if the desired symbols would roll, it meant you won. Garen also noticed that the amount of money you'd won was always less than the probability of winning at the game. He didn't care. If the table could cheat, he could cheat as well. Approaching the table, he used his wristband to first scan the dice and then with the help of the incorporated wristband's omni-tool to inconspicuously make identical ones. Although the two dice looked the same, inside them, a small but very useful device would easily change the center of mass to suit his needs.

Aaron gave Garen some money, grinning as he did so. Garen walked back to the same gambling table, sitting on the first open space. He placed his first bet. He lost, but it was intentional. The next time he took the two dice and he quickly switched them with the fake ones. He rolled, and won. He rolled again, and won again. The game continued, with Garen sometimes losing in order to not become too suspicious, but still, most times winning. And win he did, big time. In less than two hours he had ten times the money he had started with.

Aaron looked around and saw two strange aliens walking toward the table where Garen was. He knew these two were here to check him out because nobody could win so much money in such a short time, not if you weren't cheating. Garen noticed the small nod Aaron gave him and he quickly switched back the original dice. It was time to leave the table, but the two aliens were not of the same opinion. As one of them stopped Garen from leaving, the other took the dice and started checking them with a strange and, to them, very alien device. The aliens were puzzled since they were more than certain Garen had cheated at the game, but there was no evidence to support that claim.

To support his friend in need, Aaron and the rest of the team moved closer.

"Is there a problem?" Aaron asked the two grunts.

The ugly looking alien turned to face the newly arrived Aaron, "Your friend is cheating."

"How do you know he's cheating?"

"Because he won money," The alien stated as a matter of fact.

"So, the game is rigged, is that what you are saying? Do you at least have proof of my friend's cheating?"

The alien grunted in a very unpleasant tone, "No."

"Then we'll take our leave from this table," Aaron said, nodding to Garen to start moving.

"Not with the money," the same alien of the two hissed.

"Hey! He won the money and you have no proof that he cheated. So, bug off!"

The alien didn't take kindly of the way Aaron had spoken to him and since the diminutive alien didn't look very threatening to him, the alien went for it. Unknown to the alien, who indeed was much bigger and stronger than any of the four humans, well, maybe except for Garen, Aaron had instructed his nanosuit to considerably enhance his strength.

Aaron easily dodged the punch the alien tried to land on his face, only to first punch him back in the nose, making him step back in pain, and then send the alien on the floor with a well-placed round-kick. Nirim and Schilla did the same with the other alien who ended up on the floor next to his partner a few seconds later.

The fight with the two aliens was quickly over, but more grunts of the same alien race were now converging on their position. The team was already prepared to fight off the newcomers, but as the four aliens were approaching them, another alien of a different race slightly nodded to the four aliens. The four aliens reluctantly stopped before turning and leaving the room. The lonely alien moved to greet the team with a big smile on his face.

Aaron was inwardly smiling too. The plan had worked perfectly. Make enough fuss in such a place, show them you can cheat without being caught on how you did it and beat the crap out of a few grunts, and you'll inevitably get noticed by the wrong people. And 'wrong people' was exactly what the team was looking for.

"I apologize for the inconvenience. Please let me buy you a drink," the alien said.

"Sure, why not," Aaron replied.

"I'm Laskar, and what would your names be?" Laskar asked while motioning to them to follow him at his table in the VIP section.

"My name is Aaron, this is Garen, Nirim and Shilla."

"I have never seen your kind before. May I ask what race you are?" Laskar asked as he sat on the same chair he had been using before.

"We are humans. We are new to this corner of the galaxy," Aaron replied.

"Oh, newcomers; that's interesting," Laskar said, smiling. "How did you then come to this corner of the galaxy as you called it?"

"Our planet exploded, we escaped, and the rest is history."

"I understand. Such tragedy… I wouldn't want to talk about it either."

"So, why did you call us to sit with you?" Aaron asked, wanting to make the conversation move along.

"Can't somebody just ask you to sit with him for no reason?"

"He can, but, somehow, I think this is not it."

Laskar smiled, "You are right of course. I saw how you handled yourself back there, and I'm pretty sure nobody has ever won so much money in such a short time like your friend did, not without being caught doing it anyway."

"Are you calling us cheaters and liars?"

"There is no need to get offended. I meant it as a compliment."

"Well, then thank you... I think."

"Look, I'm always in search for capable people who know how to take care of themselves, and you look as a refreshing novelty around here, especially since I believe you are not some brainless tugs like most people here. Your skills could be of great use to me and I know how to reward those that help _me_."

"I'm flattered you think so highly of us… or so low of the rest of the people here, but what is it exactly that you are offering, and what would we have to do in return?"

"Well, I think we don't know each other that well to already tell each other all our secrets, not yet anyway. So, I propose we start with something small and build from there."

Aaron knew this man was careful. He wanted to check them out, see were their limits were and only then become _friends, _if that was the right word. "I'm listening."

Laskar smiled, "Let's just say that I have a small cargo that needs to be delivered to one of my clients and that discretion is paramount. No questions asked on what's inside, no questions on who's getting the cargo and of course any contact with the law in this place is not advisable."

"This place has law enforcement?"

"It does, although they rather keep for themselves most of the time, for a fee of course."

"Alright, if you give as a few pointers, we'll keep clear of them, but we still didn't discuss what we get in return."

"Five hundred credits upfront and five hundred more after delivery," Laskar gave his rip-off deal.

"Not to complain, but my friend here made five times that amount in less than two hours."

Laskar smiled again, "That's true, but this is only a test. It's not meant to make you rich. If you perform as I think you will, the next job will be much more gratifying."

Aaron waited for a moment as if he was reluctant to accept this screw up deal, "Alright, we accept."

"Excellent! Now for the details…"

Aaron and the rests of his team returned to their shuttle to contact the Intrepid.

"Captain Atan, we have established contact with the locals and managed to get involved in some shady business. I believe this is the only way we can get somewhere with this people here."

"That bad?" Atan replied.

"Pretty much, yes. Here everyone works outside the law and the small law enforcement presence here, well, they get paid to keep away from their businesses. If we want to learn something about the races in this galaxy and maybe find some useful information on the Furling, this is the only way to do it."

"Alright, if you think this is the best way, you are authorized to proceed. How much time do you think it will take before you have something concrete?"

"Captain, this is going to be a long mission. At least a week before we start seeing some results," Aaron said. Seeing the captain nodding pensively, he continued. "I also think you should leave this system."

"How do you mean, leave this system?"

"Yes, I think you should leave us here alone."

"And why would I do something like that?" Atan asked, not understanding why he would ever leave one of his team on a planet, and especially on a very hostile planet at that.

"First, because you have your mission to continue and being tied down for an unknown period of time doesn't help your mission. The second reason is because, while we were in the bar, we saw several Sanarians lurking around, not very amicable people from what we saw and heard, but right now they don't know us and I would like to keep it that way."

Atan understood, "And for now the Sanarians only know how the ship that attacked them looks like. They didn't see our faces."

"Exactly. If the ship remains in orbit, people will start putting two and two together, and notice that four strangers came on the planet at the same time as the newly arrived ship now sitting in the system. If you leave now, I think they won't have enough to make the connection between us and the ship."

It was true that if the ship left now, it would be strange they had left four of their people behind, "If you are sure about this, we will resume our mission, but we'll keep close by just in case you need us."

"Thank you captain, that would be appreciated," said Aaron. He was confident in their ability to stay alive, but he didn't want to be stuck on this rock indefinitely without any way of getting out.

The team got back to work, the first thing to do, finding a more permanent place for their shuttle and some accommodations for the five of them, pilot included. Laskar told them of a motel of sorts nearby where they could find cheap accommodations and safely place their shuttle without fear of being stolen. Of course, they would have to mention Laskar's name for that, but this would also increase the trust they were trying to build with him. Not that they believed anyone here had the necessary knowledge to highjack the shuttle's systems. The built-in gene activation, combined with the need to activate the small craft mentally, meant nobody would be able to lift it from the ground. The security system would also challenge anyone trying to enter the ship and whoever tried to enter forcibly would get a few nasty surprises; nonlethal, but nasty nevertheless.

"Alright then, send us any new information you gather, and good luck to you all."

"Thank you Captain, Aaron out."

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Unknown location  
**_Stardate: 2231.6_

Looking at the blue swirling hyperspace dimension outside the newly built soon to become Traveler ship, John thought how this ship wasn't that bad after all, especially when new. The ship had the fastest hyperdrive after those that the four great races had, it had decent shields and weapons, again not comparable, but still better than most, and although he would never admit it to Larrin, the support system was even better than what they had on their ships. Apparently, being forced to travel the stars for generations taught them how to better scrap CO2 and heat their ships with more efficiency. The eggheads on Asura were already planning to upgrade our own ships with a similar system, or at least use it for their newly built ships; a fact that also troubled John greatly.

It was puzzling how the Terrans didn't have enough shipyard time to schedule a ship refit because they were constantly building new ones. Even the idea of building and repairing the Travelers' ships hadn't been well received by the powers that be, namely the Council and Jack in particular. Apparently, Weir had gotten an earful on how she should have asked if we could build the Travelers their new ships first. Weir on the other hand gave an earful to John, asking him why the hell the military needed so many new warships so quickly, apparently still under the impression he knew something. He still wasn't getting any info on why all this was happening. Yes, sure, the Ori were a problem, and having a large fleet was most definitely necessary, but this was becoming ridiculous. The Terrans had now built two more shipyards on Asura, three more on Tollana and two more on Terra Nova were nearing completion, and all these shipyards were the same type as those originally found on Asura. The only reason why you'd build such a big shipyard was if you wanted to build equally big ships, which meant they were building a fleet of the latest SC-310 Supercarriers or the D-306 Dreadnoughts, which to him looked like overkill even against the Ori. With the new plasma beam weapons, the BB-305 battleship was a much better fit since it could stand against an Ori ship on its own and you still needed ten times less material to build it than what you need for the D-306. To make things even stranger, the Dreadnought class looked as if it was standard to have a ZPM to boost its already incredible power and he knew the Terrans didn't have so many to spare, but, as rumors go, it appears Liam had promised a fresh ZPM for every new D-306 they would make. John sighed inwardly, thinking how all this looked like the Terrans and apparently the Asgard and Guardians too, were all preparing to meet the end-of-the-universe kind of enemy.

The newly built ship exited hyperspace, in front, finding an identical, maybe a little worn down almost like looking in a dirty mirror, replica of itself. Quickly exchanging a few messages and the process of transferring people began, with Larrin being one of the first to go to the newly built ship. She was impressed at how an identical ship could look so differently from the inside, just because it was new. The smell alone was giving Larrin the impression this wasn't one of their ships, even after having spent a lot of time on the Aurora that was in a much better condition that the rest of their fleet. There was no rust to speak of anywhere and the engine room didn't have cables all over the place attempting, but not always succeeding, to divert power from conduits that had long ago broken down, all in an attempt to feed the power hungry hyperdrive. For the first time in her life, Larrin was looking to the future with hope for her people. It would take a lot of time for all of their ships to be repaired, that much was certain, but soon she knew, the Travelers would have reliable homes among the stars, homes that didn't constantly threaten to break apart.

Reaching the bridge of the new ship, she also noticed a few small changes from the specs she had given the Terrans. Puzzled at the changes in the room, she turned to the one person who might give her some answers.

"John, what is this?" Larrin asked while looking at the different consoles on the bridge.

"This is holographic projection technology Larrin. At least that's what the eggheads back home told me it's called. With the new systems we've installed, you can run the entire ship from one console. You also now have the ability to control the entire ship through voice commands."

"Voice commands?" Larrin asked in puzzlement. They never had such technology.

"Yeah, look. Computer, transfer command level authorization to Larrin, the person standing in front of me," John said to the air.

With a light washing over a very startled Larrin, the ship began scanning her bio pattern, "_Scanning complete. Command level authorization has been granted to - Larrin._"

"Computer, delete all authorizations for one John Sheppard."

"_Warning, the deletion of such authorizations will block any further interaction with the system from said user. Please confirm deletion_," the computer asked.

"Confirmed," John said.

"_Authorizations for user John Sheppard have been removed_," the computer replied after a short delay.

John turned toward a baffled Larrin, "Now you are the only person the system will allow access."

"This is so cool… and frightening."

"There are more changes around the ship, mainly in the engine room. You now don't have to worry about going bald because you've spent more than ten minutes in there."

Larrin made a grimace at the thought. She had almost never spent any time in there, mostly because of the same reason John had mentioned. "This is a great ship John, thank you," Larrin said it with no double meaning, teasing or any trace of sarcasm. This time she was genuinely grateful and not afraid of showing it.

"I'm glad you like it. With your permission, one of our engineers will stay with you until you get fed up with him. He'll show you all the changes we've made and how to use them."

"Sure, that will greatly help."

"Well, I think your people are almost finished with the transfer so I'll leave you to your new ship," John said, already headed for the bridge door.

"Wait, I have something for you too," Larrin said, stopping Sheppard in his tracks.

"You do?"

Larrin nodded, "One of our ships found something. I don't know if it's anything, the captain didn't want to risk it, but they have found something while scanning a planet."

"What?"

"From orbit it looks like a Wraith outpost. Here are the coordinates and the scanning data," Larrin said, giving John a small data crystal.

"Thanks, we'll check it out immediately."

"Be careful though. The captain said there's a chance they were spotted."

"Will do. I'll contact you when the second ship is repaired."

The two of them said their goodbyes and Shepard left the room. Using one of the shuttles they had brought with them, he transferred to the _old gal_ that needed urgent repairs. Immediately after reaching the bridge, he put the data crystal inside one of the slots on a console, quickly receiving the content on the small screen in front of him. The screen was showing the coordinates as well as sensor readings that made John sure it was a Wraith outpost. John could barely wait to reach Atlantis and start planning a mission to see if there's anything useful inside that outpost.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Earth – New York  
**_Stardate: 2232.21_

Jack was walking on 1st Avenue, directed North towards the United Nations building where he was about to give a speech. It was strange for him. This was the first time he was actually walking alone in New York without any security detail as escort. The best part was that nobody recognized him as he strolled through the people all around him moving in both directions. The fact was that, with the mimicking device he was using, nobody could recognize him anyway. To everybody else, he looked like a thirty years old male, with blond hair and blue eyes. Except for the mimicking device, deemed still not enough, the reason why he was allowed to stroll alone in the middle of New York was because he had received a gift from Liam, allowing him to safely move without fear of being killed even if he was recognized. The little emerald looking device was a personal shield that was able to protect him from everything short of a nuclear blast, and the constant watchful eye of the Prometheus above him was insurance he could get away in a blink of an eye.

Still, he had to practically beg to be allowed to go alone in the midst of millions of other people. The reason why he wanted to go alone was because he had started to feel like a prisoner, able to move more freely on other planets than on his own home planet. It wasn't right and he wanted to see his world and the people whose lives he was working so hard to change, to change for the better.

While he was walking, he did notice some differences from the last time he had visited New York many years ago. The difference was subtle, but it was there nonetheless. It was the sound, the sound of cars crawling down the street. The cars' engines were not roaring as they usually did, they were instead whining, a sound usually made only by electrical engines. This was one of the first changes he had noticed as now having an electric car apparently wasn't an exception anymore. Now, having a combustion engine was the exception as more and more people were starting to buy the much more efficient electric cars. And why wouldn't they? Electric engines had more than ninety percent efficiency while combustion engines could maybe reach thirty percent in the best of circumstances. And with the recharge rate problem that previously would tie you up for hours while waiting for the car to finally be recharged now taking almost the same time as to fill up a full tank of gasoline, there was no reason to keep driving the former version of cars.

Jack smiled. He was glad to see there was change after all and soon there would be much more, especially after the little speech he was about to give to the world. Jack had finally crossed the 44th East Street, clearly minutes from his intended target, the United Nations building.

The man at the entrance had looked strangely at Jack when he had shown him his credentials that showed he was Jack O'Neill, identifiable by the picture that was clearly depicting the one and only Jack O'Neill. The reason for their confusion was because his face was telling a completely different story. He immediately understood the gaff he had made, quickly tapping the mimicking device and startling the hell out of everyone around him. After composing themselves, the guards had allowed Jack to go inside the building where he quickly found his way to the conference room where he was about to give his little speech.

Inside the room, all were already assembled and seated, waiting patiently his arrival. He walked onto the podium, nodding to a few people he recognized and ignoring others he didn't like. All countries had their representatives here, especially since the Terrans had stated that High Councilor O'Neill was about to give a very important speech. It could be anything, so consequently nobody wanted to miss it.

Jack waited a few more moments until the entire room quieted down completely.

"Thank you all for coming here today, especially under such short notice," Jack started his speech. The Terrans had informed them only a day earlier of the speech.

"Today, I stand here before you to tell you about what Earth's future holds, what the future of the planet we all love and that we all call home holds. In my time, I have visited many worlds, met many races, some friendly, others not, but there is no other planet I could ever call home as I do with Earth.

"Since the beginning of the Terran Alliance, I and many others have worked tirelessly to keep this planet safe from the many threats from this and other galaxies, and I believe we have succeeded in this important goal as well as the promise that we will continue to do so.

"But, this is not the only goal we have set out for us. Another, very important goal was set upon us and that is to push Earth into the Golden Age, an era where everybody on the planet can prosper, live happily and not have to worry about what tomorrow holds. I'm sorry to say this, but we haven't accomplished that second goal.

"Earth is still polluted, global warming is still very much present, wars are still ragging in many countries on the planet and the planet is far from being united. Although I believe that not all problems could have been solved easily or in such a short time, I do believe more should have been accomplished by now. And this is the reason why I'm here today.

"In the past few years the Terrans have supplied advancements that have greatly helped people on Earth, but little did they help the planet we live on. This is why we have started a program in which we are bringing technologies that will help with global warming as well as clear the air and soil of our planet from pollution. But, nothing will help if we don't start producing clean energy, energy that doesn't need polluting agents like gasoline, coal or uranium.

"Recently, I have been informed by senator Strom that it is not easy to change the entire power grid of a country like the US, and that it takes a lot of money to do it. This is why I took Senator Strom's words to heart, and with the rest of the Terran Council we have decided to build and supply all countries members of the Terrans Alliance with as many fusion reactors as they need at no cost. We plan to have the first batch of reactors ready in one month, with a new batch coming every other month after that. We believe we can supply all countries with the necessary number of fusion reactors in less than a year, so that no other method of energy production is needed anymore.

"Thank you for listening," Jack said, vanishing in a bright flash of light and leaving the people in the room puzzled at what had just happened.

At the same time, somewhere in Washington DC, Senator Strom was watching the television in his living room, red as a paprika and with blood spurting from his nose.

In another, more oval room, President Hayes was laughing so hard that he actually fell off his chair. Contrary to his previous belief, he _will_ go after all in the annals of history as the president who brought clean energy to the world.

Even though, per mandate, the Terrans did not have the authority to supply Earth with fusion reactors or anything except for pure technologies, nobody would be able to say no to such an offer, especially since the entire world had watched Jack's little speech on television. And since the only reason why clean and cheap energy wasn't already in every day use was their excuse it would be too costly to rebuild their entire power grid, they will have a very difficult job of finding another reason why not to use them since the Terrans were now supplying the very useful reactors at no cost.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated**


	8. Enemies, New & Old

**Author's note: **Another Friday is here and another chapter is up. Somehow I managed to publish this chapter today even though the flu didn't make it any easier. I hope I caught all errors and didn't make new ones while checking this chapter today. Well, not much to do anyway. Can't get out, can't go to work. The least I could do was to publish the next chapter on time.

**Rudy Pena: **more is forwarded right away.

**chain reader: **Jack 1: Strom 0, Jack 1: Kinsey 0. Apparently Jack has something against senators.

**Senrab Nomis: **Here comes the answer what the Travelers had found. Upgrading vs building new ships is always a tricky thing to decide. Building a new ship that already has all the upgrades is arguably a better choice if ship upgrades take a lot of time to complete. If it takes only a fraction of the time than what it takes to build the same type of ship, then yes, it is something they must do. Why would humans on Earth keep the primate on lack of law and order. Other races should show the same problem.

**romanhellhound: **It is true they had made the man obnoxious in the show.

**EvilTheLast: **Thanks.

**meow114: **As promised at the end of the previous story, I started the story at the end of summer. I keep my promises, almost always.

**James0416: **I think many feel the same way when politics is the topic.

**Thanks to my beta, and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter too.**

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Wraith Outpost  
**_Stardate: 2242.1_

The small SF-307 stealth frigate exited hyperspace at the edge of the system where the latest intel was telling them there might be a Wraith outpost somewhere on one of the planets in the system. Slowly pushing under its cloak, the nimble vessel made its way to the planet in question, quickly entering geosynchronous orbit above the by now detected Wraith installation. Using only passive scans in order to remain undetected, the crew quickly confirmed that indeed there was some kind of Wraith outpost on the surface and that there was clear energy emissions coming from inside the compound. Knowing that it meant there were Wraith down there and that there was a chance of finding useful information, the crew of the small ship started with the necessary preparations for the next phase of their mission.

Descending through the atmosphere of the planet under its own cloak, the small raptor carried three teams of Terran Special Forces to their destination.

"What do you think we'll find down there?" one of the soldiers asked.

"Wraith," another replied readily.

"Smartass. I meant, what you think we'll find _except_ the Wraith?" the same soldier asked.

"No point in pondering about that now. We'll see soon enough," yet another soldier replied.

"I think we'll find some kind of twisted Wraith lab where they do strange experiments," the smartass labeled soldier answered.

"You watch too many horror movies. You always think there'll be some zombies or some other creatures from hell waiting for us."

"Yeah, well, we do have to fight space vampires, don't we?"

"That's true. Creatures from hell _is_ a fairly accurate description for the Wraith. Like regular vampires they too feel weak when they don't eat, and they also can't die of old age."

"Maybe there is some kind of relation between vampire stories and the Wraith. They don't suck your blood, but they are not very far from it."

"And how do you suppose these stories about vampires have reached Earth? I mean, we are talking about a completely different galaxy here."

"Maybe the Lanteans had something to do with it. You know, once they came back to Earth and started mingling with us mere humans. Maybe they started spreading stories about the Wraith they had fought."

"It's possible. Maybe they changed the truth a little, or it changed by itself after the story had been told countless times through so many generations."

"Yeah, a patriarchal society like humans were back then would most certainly have changed the story so that a male was in charge and not a queen. Plus, the way humans get turned into vampires can have something to do with the fact that the first Lanteans had been turned into Wraith by a contagious virus. Maybe in the beginning of the Wraith, the Lanteans who turned also spread the virus in that fashion."

"It's possible. Humans who weren't drained to death could've turned into Wraith. Also, Dracula and his family are often described to be different from the rest of the vampires."

"Meaning?"

"It could mean that maybe Dracula and his family of misfits were maybe Lanteans who were advanced humans to begin with and they turned into some form of advanced Wraith."

"Yeah, but that would mean there is another type of Wraith we haven't met yet. Something like _the Originals_, you know."

"Now that's not a very nice prospect, is it?"

"But, if we assume all stories on Earth related to vampires are true, who are the werewolves in those stories then?"

"Why do you think there are werewolves to begin with? Maybe somebody just added them later."

"I don't know. Usually vampires and werewolves come together, that's all."

"You watched Underworld again, didn't you?"

"And what if I did?"

"Well, that at least would explain why you started this strange conversation in the first place."

Throughout their comm. units the voice of the pilot informed them they were just about to land and that it was now time for the real mission to start.

Touching the soft grassy ground beneath, the raptor began opening the rear hatch in order to allow the three teams to exit the craft. In the distance, no more than three hundred meters from their landing site, the general shape of the Wraith outpost could be seen. Exiting the raptor and moving quickly through the night, all three teams wanted nothing more than for this mission to end as quickly as possible. The first idea the Terrans had when they heard of the Wraith outpost was to storm the place with as much firepower as they could bring in such a short time, but after a little more thinking and deliberation, the top brass decided a stealth operation to gather as much intel as possible was a much better idea. After the completion of the said mission, they could easily decide to obliterate the entire outpost from orbit if necessary.

Once inside the outpost, uncontested by any Wraith patrol, the three teams split, going in separate ways. With such infiltration missions, the probability of discovery was always high and the lack of quick support meant that speed as well as stealth was of the essence. Splitting in three separate groups, the various teams proceeded deeper into the organic Wraith construct, each team on its own. Team Alpha was the first to find some opposition in their path when they spotted a lonely Wraith moving through the same corridor they had just reached. Noticing the threat, the team quickly moved back inside a small room, patiently waiting for the Wraith to walk past them. With the Wraith, the worst thing was their telepathic ability to communicate among each other. This meant the only possible way for them to remain unnoticed was to leave the Wraith be in hope not to be discovered or, as the second option, to kill the sucker even before he could let a scream into the telepathic ether.

Alpha team leader watched the small dot on the Ancient scanner slowly moving past them. After having waited a little longer in order to make sure the Wraith was distant enough to not hear them, the team stepped back in the corridor and proceeded deeper inside the outpost. Only minutes later, the ancient scanner started showing faint life signs just behind the next door in the corridor. If it was only for the readings, the team would have probably decided to skip the room and proceed further down the corridor, but as the room was also giving out a lot of energy, the team decided to check it out.

Inside the room, the team found organic alcoves spread all over the opposite wall reassembling those having already been seen when SGA-1, at the time led by Shepard, had entered a Wraith cloning facility. Usually, such finding wouldn't merit a moment's thought, but the fact that the alcoves didn't contain newly cloned Wraith, but instead were filled with humans, made the team stay and perform a more thorough check of this finding.

Connecting a portable tablet to one of the Wraith organic console was never an easy feat and it took more than five nerve-wracking minutes to accomplish that specific task. Finally having been able to access the systems in the room, the designated scientist on the team quickly scrolled through the data he was receiving. The slightly agape mouth, combined with the widened eyes on the scientist's face, made the leader of the team start thinking how they had just found something he wouldn't particularly like.

"It's cloning alright, but it's rather experimentation with human cloning and not Wraith," the scientist replied.

Of course, when a race is faced with the slight problem of losing their food source, they inevitably search for other ways of feeding, and since Wraith don't have the luxury to turn vegans like humans do, the only other possible way to solve the problem is to start getting their food by cloning humans.

"Oh, that's not good, not good at all. If they are able to clone humans, they will have an unlimited food supply," the team leader said. "What progress have they made?"

"I would say they are nearing the end of their research. They were already successful in creating a few clones. It also says they only have a forty percent success rate, but this means they just need a little more time before they perfect the process," the designated scientist replied.

The team leader wanted to say something when his comm. device chirped, "What is it?"

"_We have found a lab where they are testing what we believe is an improved power generation unit. Unfortunately, there was a Wraith in the lab. We managed to kill it quickly, but I'm not sure if he was able to send a telepathic alarm before dying."_

Another bad news. The Wraith apparently were trying to improve their power generation capabilities as well, probably to increase their ships' strength. "Alright, if you notice any strange movement, we are bailing out. Try to sabotage their research if you can," the captain said over the comm., turning to his team's scientist and letting him know that he wanted from him to do the same.

"No can do sir," the scientist said while shaking his head.

"How do you mean, you can't?"

"I can sabotage this station and the alcoves, but their system is constantly backing up data to a secondary location."

"And where is that secondary location?"

"I don't know sir. The transfer is happening via subspace, which means it's probably not on the planet."

The Wraith were getting smarter, that was immediately apparent. Backing up data and doing extensive research to improve their ships, something they hadn't done in ten thousand years, was clear indication of that fact. Thinking of their current conundrum and a way on how to solve it, the captain barely registered when the scientist spoke, informing the rest of the team that a silent alarm had been triggered. Snapping from his thoughts, the captain started barking orders to his team as well as through his comm. device, "People, we've been discovered. Place a few brick of C4 in the lab you are in or any sensitive console you see and let's get the hell out of here."

Working quickly, the three teams placed as many bricks of C4 as they could in the little time they had. It was time to leave. Alpha team leader peeked through the door of the lab, finding nothing more than an empty corridor.

'_This is strange?' _the captain thought while checking his ancient scanner displaying no new contacts at all. Moving quickly through the various corridors, the lack of any opposition made the captain more nervous than if they were fighting a horde of Wraith grunts.

The captain's comm. device chirped again, "I'm listening."

"_Alpha Team leader, this is Shadow Walker. We are detecting a power surge coming from inside the Wraith outpost and a Wraith scout ship has just left the compound,_" the reply came from the stealth frigate in orbit.

The captain's eyes widened, understanding what was happening and why there wasn't any opposition in the entire outpost. He clicked twice his comm. device, allowing him to broadcast to everyone, "Listen! The Wraith must have activated the self-destruct before leaving. To all teams, move out as fast as you can!"

One minute later, the three teams exited the Wraith outpost, running like hellhounds were chasing them, towards the rapidly approaching raptor that had taken off the ground and was just in the process of landing near the entrance. Hastily, the team practically jumped inside the raptor, taking off the next second.

Speeding at tree level away from the soon to be obliterated outpost, the craft quickly gained speed, rising into the sky. A bright flash of light made the cockpit's glass darken, just a split second before the ship started rocking left and right like it was a weightless leaf in a massive storm. As the shaking subsided, all inside started checking if they were still in one piece.

"That was close. Too close," one in the pretty shaken up group said.

"What the hell is going on with the Wraith? They never paid so much as a thought to research and they certainly never used a self-destruct on one of their installations before," alpha team leader said in puzzlement.

"We too have found some research," the captain of the third and last team added. "They were working on improving their organic hull, something to do with allowing their ships to stay longer in hyperspace without getting damaged."

"Great! Who knows what else they were researching in the rest of the labs we didn't have time to check out."

"At least we didn't stumble upon Dracula in there," one of the idiots said.

"Well, self-destruct trumps Dracula every time in my book."

"I agree."

"Me too."

While the rest of the little group went back to stories about vampires, spitting theories on how Earth's stories came to be, the captain of the first team was spending thinking on how, maybe, after all, the Wraith were not so defunct as they all thought they were. Atlantis must be quickly informed of their findings, and they need to do something before the Wraith managed to perfect the many new research projects they were clearly working on. The idea of the Wraith having the ability to clone as many human bodies as they need was frightening for many reasons. With the ability to produce food on their hives and with better power generation as well as a hull that doesn't need constant drops out of hyperspace to regenerate, the Wraith could theoretically cross the void between galaxies even with the weaker version of a hyperdrive. It would take them months or even a year, but they could reach the Milky Way galaxy without anyone being able to stop them, and that thought didn't sit well with the captain.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy  
**_Stardate: 2267.11_

The Terran Intelligence Agency didn't have an easy job. A galaxy was a big place, and the TIA's job was to collect data from two of them, the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxy. While the second wasn't as large as the first one, that fact didn't mean the sheer number of planets they needed to check was any smaller. Together, the two galaxies had given the TIA the job of having to check tens of thousands of planets.

The first part of their job was to find all habitable planets and catalog them if they had sentient life on them or not, as well as to find the amount of possible resources the planets have. At least this part didn't fall entirely on the TIA's shoulders as the Terran Space Fleet also had the same task. The second part though was completely under the TIA's purview, which was to check all those planets that had a human population on them. They would usually send one of their agents in disguise, not to alarm the inhabitants without reason, and he or she would then spend a few days or sometimes even more living among them. The idea was to find out how many there were, how technologically advanced, their type of government, if they were peaceful or not and of course, depending on the latter, the threat they could pose to the rest of the galaxy. Usually, the agent would spend a few days among small communities with very little technology at their disposal and usually finding they pose no threat at all.

The data the TIA was collecting this way was then sent and analyzed back on Terrania and everything was being placed in their ever growing database. Categorizing races all over the galaxy was very important to the Terrans, especially since they had great plans for them. The Terrans had found a very concerning fact widely spread on many planets. During the days of Goa'uld oppression, most humans lived in squalor and slavery. It also wasn't uncommon that a planet would lose most of its population due to harsh working conditions or through diseases that had never been tended by the Goa'uld. The situation in which those people lived was horrible and once the mines would turn dry, the Goa'uld didn't even bother to help them. Instead, they would just leave the planet, never to return. In some cases, the people would recover and even be happy their masters had finally left, but in many other instances the conditions hadn't improved. Diseases, famine and a too small population to even provide the necessary genetic pool to grow in numbers had been found on many worlds.

During a discussion, the Terran Council decided that something needed to be done. They quickly came to the idea to relocate people from many such worlds on one single planet where the Terrans could easily provide them with proper housing, food and medical care. As a result, one planet had been chosen, but it wasn't without problems. The planet in question was unfortunately infested by a bug that very much liked to sting people and, by doing so, insert its genetic material as a way of procreating. This was the planet Teal'c would most certainly never forget.

The Terrans began the difficult work of eradicating the pesky bug from the planet, which turned out to be an almost impossible task. The bug had practically destroyed the entire fauna and every type of insecticide they had tried didn't give the desired result. Large concentration of the poison were able to kill the bug, but they couldn't be certain all of them had been eradicated and if even one remained, it could be catastrophic for the people they were planning to relocate on the planet.

In the end, Liam heard about the task the Terrans set upon them and decided to lay a hand. He reached the planet in question and fired a weapon similar to the one found on Dakara. The wave the weapon created spread on the entire surface and, since the waveform had been calibrated to match that of the bug, the entire planet was cleaned of the infestation. The planet was finally free with the infrastructure already present and ready to be used by the people in need of relocation. Although Liam was content with what he had accomplished, he didn't like Jack's suggestion of putting a flashy inscription on his ship's port and starboard side saying 'Galactic Exterminator', with a picture of a big cockroach next to it and a contact gate address on how to find him if needed, something Jack thought would be the business of the century.

The reason why the Terrans wanted that particular planet was because of the entire infrastructure of the previous race still being intact. There were of course a few things the Terrans needed to repair, but the bug had killed the entire population so suddenly that it had left their infrastructure ready to be taken by whoever came to the planet. They were also very curious to find what the race had accomplished as it was apparent even from their first visit that the race had been a very advanced one, maybe even more than Earth of that time. Daniel also wanted to find anything he could about their history. It would be a waste to lose such an overwhelming historical finding.

As it turned out, the race had been freed from the Goa'uld more than two thousand years ago and they were able to create a modern society with great technological achievements. Unfortunately, it also showed, as it had previously been suspected, that the bug hadn't evolved by natural means. Years before SG-1 first went on the planet the race began experimenting with genetic manipulation using a simple bug from their planet as the test subject. As a result, subject number 143 soon mutated, turning into the monster that would in short time doom their entire race. Apparently, trying to make the ultimate soldier through genetic manipulation was bad karma.

With the bug finally gone and with the Terrans having repaired everything that needed repairs, the planet was ready to receive the first of many humans from other worlds. The planet would remain under direct control of the Terrans for a very long time, decades possibly, before they would be certain the by then newly formed race could sustain itself and prosper.

As mentioned, the TIA's job was to find all races that could pose a threat and see if something could be done in that regard. In the past, the Terrans came across a few races that could fall into that category. The first one was the race that tried to gain control of Stargate Command almost ten years ago by using a mimicking device that made them look like humans. The answer to that possible threat was to send a spy-ship to see what the planet held and how much of a threat the race really was. What they found wasn't pretty, but it wasn't anything that warranted immediate action. The race was still limited by the gate network if they wanted to leave their planet, something the Terrans liked very much, especially since what the spy-ship found out wasn't reassuring. The race was very much hostile and militaristic in nature, their planet was well defended from an attack from space and the race numbered in billions. So far the race wasn't showing any hostile intentions towards any other planet, with the reason why still not completely clear. The Terrans weren't sure if the race didn't know about any other gate address except the one connecting to Earth they'd acquired when the Terrans first visited their planet, or if the race was waiting before spreading into a galaxy mostly dominated by human worlds for some other reason. No matter what the reason was, the quick attack at the SGC had shown the Terrans the race would sooner or later venture to other worlds with bad intentions.

The Terrans Council had discussed what to do, coming to the conclusion that the attack on the SGC wasn't enough to warrant a military strike. The Council instead decided they would monitor the unknown race and if in the future the race did something nefarious to any other world, they would simply take the gate from the planet and leave them completely isolated from the rest of the galaxy. That was, at least, until the race developed some other mean of traveling the galaxy, something the Terrans were more than certain it would take a long time, knowing how, without the help of others, developing hyperdrive technology wasn't an easy feat to achieve.

The next and last threat they needed to check was the Taldur, a governmental body that would without thinking twice send people to the penal colony of Hadante for crimes they had committed. The problem was that, in most cases, the body would find somebody guilty and the punishment also didn't fit the crime in many of those occasions. Something Jack and the rest of the former SG-1 team knew very well, since they as well had been sent to the penal colony.

No matter how their first encounter with the Taldur hadn't been as amicable as they'd hoped it should have been and also not taking into account how much of a grudge Jack had with them, they decided to send somebody to try and mend fences. The only thing they didn't like was when Jack said '_I'll go_' with finality in his voice. The Council agreed, but decided they would send somebody else as well from another of the four great races just to be sure.

Jack and Thor stepped through the stargate on the Taldur's world. Although the Asgard were not very inclined to travel through the gate, mostly because of their fragile bodies, it was decided that showing up with a ship above their planet wasn't a good idea. At least as far as Jack was concerned. Also, the Asgard were not as fragile as they once were, since now Thor just had his consciousness transferred into the third generation Asgard body, almost free of all negative side effects the cloning process had created. Thor also didn't look small, not as much as he had in the past. As they walked side by side, it was clearly visible that Thor was easily reaching Jack's shoulders.

"Oh, Thor, I almost forgot. Daniel wanted to ask you something." Jack said. Seeing Thor simply looking at him expectantly, he continued. "He found out something about the Goa'uld recently, while going through some relics or something like that, I'm not sure. Anyway, he wanted to ask you if you know how is it possible that the time when the Goa'uld began spreading through the galaxy could coincide so closely with your first recordings of your genetic degradation."

Thor turned facing Jack, "I am not fluid in Goa'uld history. When did the Goa'uld first appear?"

"Um… sixteen thousand… three hundred and… forty years ago, I think. That's what Daniel told me at least."

Thor looked puzzled. "If your timing is correct, then the Goa'uld had emerged only a few years before we first recorded our genetic degradation. The timing does seem too close to be coincidental."

"Yeah, that's what Daniel said too. Any idea?"

"As I said, I'm not well informed on the first years of the Goa'uld. We know they began spreading through the galaxy many thousands of years before the Asgard noticed them. Only after they had found Earth and when they were already using humans as hosts did we cross paths. The period when they used the Unas as host remains a mystery to us. But if Daniel is correct, the timing of two such important events in the past is very peculiar. I will have to ask the council about it."

"Thor? If it's not a problem, can you also tell me how did Liam found a way to solve your cloning problem?" Jack asked. It wasn't something the Asgard liked to discuss.

Thor paused for a moment, thinking if he should answer, or if Jack would even be able to understand. "It is not a problem. Liam used the original Asgard DNA he had in his database to create an in vitro Asgard. At that point, he went to sleep for the ten thousand years while a very powerful computer started computing a genetic algorithm."

"Genetic algorithm?"

"Yes. The algorithm simulated the evolution of the Asgard DNA in a random fashion, similar to what happens with mitochondrial reproduction. The algorithm created millions of virtual samples of Asgard DNA, splicing them in half and combining them with other samples. It then introduces a small and random mutation that allows for changes in the next generation of Asgard DNA. The next generations of DNA was then tested to see which DNA strand showed better results than others. Those strands would then be marked with a greater chance of being used for the creation of yet another generation. With the introduction of something called elitism, it was guaranteed that the best sample always makes it into the next generation. This process continued during his long sleep of ten thousand years."

"Once he woke up, he used the device that allows someone to manipulate DNA on the in vitro Asgard until he succeeded in creating a viable host for our consciousness to be downloaded. You now see why we owe him so much. We would never have had the time needed for something like this."

"Ah, but I know you have those fancy time-dilation thingy at your disposal. You could have used them to make the calculation."

"No, we could not."

"Why not?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Let's say yes," Jack said, not completely sure.

"You are aware of the fact that as well as ours, the Alterran computers are based on crystals?"

"That I know."

"Do you know how the crystals work?"

"Not a clue."

"I had the feeling you would say that. The crystal use light that is trapped in the crystalline structure and with the ability to use strong EM fields, we are able to change how this light travels inside the crystal, hence giving us the ability to create logical units."

Jack thought about what Thor said, "Photonic computers?"

Thor was actually surprised, "Not the term I would have used, but correct nonetheless."

"So what does this have to do with not being able to use a time dilation field?"

"Do you know what the speed of light is?"

"I do. It's the speed at which light travels. It's three hundred thousand… of something."

"Yes. And do you know what the speed of light is in a time dilation field that makes time go, let's say, a thousand times faster from an outside observer's point of view?"

"A thousand times faster?"

"No. The speed of light is perceived to be the same; hence the speed the computers calculate remains the same as if there was no time dilation."

"I don't get it."

"I know." Thor said, sighing. "Suffice to say, the computational speed of a light based computer remains always the same, because light cannot move faster than what its speed under normal condition is, time dilation field included."

"I still don't get it."

Thor sighed, "If a spaceship travels at one quarter the speed of light, and it receives an EM signal from the space station it just left; at which speed will the signal be perceived by the spaceship?"

Jack stopped for a moment, thinking hard. "If the ship travels at a quarter of the speed of light, and if the EM signal travels at the speed of light, they would perceive the signal at three quarters the speed of light."

"No, the light will be perceived at the only speed it can travel, which is the speed of light. It does not matter at which speed we travel. The speed at which every EM signal is perceived will always be the speed of light. In the same way, light in a time dilation field is still perceived to travel at the speed of light by an outside observer, making the computer calculate at the same speed as if there wasn't any time dilation field."

Jack stopped for a moment, "Thor, sorry I asked."

"I knew you would."

"But I still don't get why you have to go through several bodies that are still... not it? Why not transfer your consciousness directly into what Liam came up with?"

"Liam gave us several steps we need to go through in order for our consciousness to adapt to the new body. If we had immediately transferred into our end bodies, our consciousness would be unable to integrate correctly."

"I don't follow."

'I know,' Thor thought. "Think of it like using an operating system on the wrong hardware."

"I don't follow."

'Oy' Thor sighed inwardly. "Think of it as the same thing that happened to you when you received the knowledge from the Alterran Repository."

"Ouch! That wouldn't be good," Jack said.

"No, it wouldn't," Thor said. "This is why we need to go through these steps before we can finally start using our real new bodies."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Jack said, thinking how it probably wasn't very pleasant having to do this.

"It is a small price to pay. We were the ones who neglected all the warning signs of using cloning as a way of achieving immortality. We need to be grateful we have received a second chance, something many didn't believe would ever happen."

As they walked further away from the gate, a bright beam of light transported the two of them away. They were deposited in a large and darkly lit room, with no one else to be seen anywhere around them.

"You still believe this was a good idea?" Thor asked Jack.

"I do. If we want to have any kind of relation with these people, we need to be certain they are not being polite to us just because there's an Asgard battlecruiser in orbit of their planet or something like that," Jack answered. As usual his idea was to look like sheep while in fact they were the wolves.

"And you think you being here, one of those who were sent to their penal colony, will help?"

"If they are about to do something, my presence will assure they will."

"Perhaps. I still believe standard contact is a preferred method," Thor said more from a personal perspective. He felt _naked_ when traveling through the gate. "Their hospitality also fails to be desired," Thor added while looking around.

"I've told you they are rude people," Jack added.

"Indeed. Why are they hiding from view?" Thor asked.

"Beats me; did the same thing last time too. Apparently, they are xenophobic."

"Silence! You are in the presence of the Tuldor."

"You see," Jack said to Thor.

"Indeed."

"Identify yourselves," a strange voice rang through the room.

Jack decided he would do the introductions, "I'm High Councilor Jack O'Neill of the Terrans and this is Supreme Commander Thor of the Asgard."

"What is the purpose of your visit?" the voice asked.

"As we already told you when we spoke through the gate, we're here to start diplomatic relations with your people," Jack said, looking around in his usual lost way.

There was no reply for a long time, with the reason why becoming apparent only moments later, "From our records we know this is not the first time you have visited our planet Councilor O'Neill."

"No, we already bumped into each other once before," Jack said while nodding to Thor to wait for it.

"Our records are also showing that you, as well as three more from your planet, were sent to our penal colony of Hadante."

"That sounds about right," Jack said.

"How did you escape?" the voice asked.

"We used the gate," Jack replied.

"There is no dialing device on Hadante."

"Who said anything about a dialing device?"

There was another lengthy pause before the voice spoke again, "Commander Thor, were you aware the man beside you was found guilty by this body and that he was sentenced with life imprisonment for his crimes?"

"I was," Thor replied simply.

Another pause followed, "Councilor O'Neill you will be sent again to our penal colony. Commander Thor, for harboring a fugitive without notifying this body of his escape, you will as well be sent to the penal colony."

Raising his hand and pointing one finger up, Jack replied, "It is, _High _Councilor O'Neill."

Thor looked at Jack baffled. Jack was motioning for him to do the same. Thor reluctantly did, raising his hand and pointing his index finger at the ceiling, "and it is, _Supreme _Commander Thor."

Then Jack continued, "Do you guys believe it is a good idea to threaten the leaders of not one but two races the moment we meet."

"It is irrelevant to this body if…"

Jack waited, looking around, clueless of why they stopped talking. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore, "Thor, any idea on why they just stopped talking?"

"I believe they have detected the Valhalla decloaking in orbit above this planet and powering up its shields and weapons."

"Yeah, that would do it," Jack said.

"I believe it would," Thor replied, unfazed.

The two of them kept looking around, waiting patiently for anyone to start talking, and a few 'Hello' from O'Neill later, they finally did.

"Under detailed scrutiny, this body has found the imprisonment of said High Councilor O'Neill to be invalid due to, at the time... faulty evidence. Furthermore, he and the rest of the people with him at the time of his imprisonment and subsequently the Supreme Commander of the Asgard are freed from all charges. This body would also like to apologize for the... misunderstanding. Furthermore, this body believes that relations at this time are not possible and will be revised in a year's time. You are free to leave whenever you wish." The voice said hastily, followed by the two of them being teleported back in front of the stargate.

"So, this was fun," Jack said, cheerfully.

Thor looked at Jack intently, "You have a strange notion of what is entertaining O'Neill."

"Oh come on! Tell me that you didn't enjoy the end?"

"Never," Thor said simply, just before using a device to activate the gate without the usual kawoosh or the gate spinning.

"Oh, you got to give me one of these!" Jack exclaimed.

"Never," Thor repeated the same word again before stepping through the event horizon.

"Oh come on!" Jack complained, but Thor was already through. There was nothing else for him to do than to follow.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Unknown Location  
**_Stardate: 2274.34_

Six Ha'tak mother ships stood in orbit above the planet. Around them, debris floated aimlessly in all directions. Half an hour ago, Rak'nor's battle group came to the system with intel the Lucians had a base here. Rak'nor's battle group had exited hyperspace close to the planet and surprised the three Lucian Ha'taks stationed there, probably having been placed in defense of their base on the surface. Without hesitation, Rak'nor's six Ha'taks had opened fire at the three enemy vessels, barely capable of raising their shields before the first impacts had hit them. Except for the numerical advantage, the Jaffa had the new model of the Ha'tak working in their favor. It appeared as these three Lucian ships had been of the first variant of Ha'taks, not even having been upgraded with technologies from Anubis.

Rak'nor had watched as, ship after ship, the three enemy vessels had exploded in massive fireballs. He was more than certain one of their ships would have been able to destroy them on its own, especially since the crew of the Lucian ships seemed very inexperienced. Rak'nor thought how their reaction time had been awful, and not of an opponent worthy of his time. And yet, this had been the biggest battle Rak'nor had fought in quite some time. In the last two months, while the Lucians had performed many cowardly raids at their worlds resulting in many Jaffa deaths, he had spent searching and then searching a lot more for possible Lucian targets, but it had all been for little or no result. The Lucians were pirates, jumping from world to world as they pleased or by spending most of their time aboard their ships somewhere in the void of space, far from prying eyes. Rak'nor had learned the Lucians were a small group of thieves and thugs who enslaved other humans to do their bidding. Even if they found some trace on a planet, usually it was only a few low level Lucians giving orders to enslaved farmers in the fields of Kassa corn. Even when they would be able to capture the few Lucians present on the planet, they knew little of where their real assets were. And yet, Rak'nor believed there must be some planet with a larger Lucian presence, a base if you will, but the problem was, how to find it.

Rak'nor had decided he should change their usual tactic and, instead of brute force, use a page from the Tau'ri rulebook. He soon found that he was good at being sneaky, following Kassa shipments from the farms to the buyers and more importantly, following the payments back to the Lucians. It was this last act that led them to this planet, a planet Rak'nor knew must have a Lucian base of operation on it.

With the Lucian Ha'taks having been destroyed, Rak'nor sent a short message to a nearby planet where a few Jaffa were waiting in order to dial the gate to the planet below. This way the Lucians wouldn't be able to escape his wrath, anger he had accumulated during the two previous months he had spent searching while other Jaffa had been dying during Lucian raids on their worlds. The Lucians had clearly spent this time trying to spread terror among the Jaffa, unsuccessfully he might add since they didn't have the means to really hurt them. They were barely able to kill a few and then escape before the Jaffa would be able to organize a valid defense.

With the gate open, the Jaffa started ringing on the planet's surface. The six Ha'taks quickly disgorged almost five hundred pissed off Jaffa, marching straight at the large complex they had tagged as the Lucian base of operation. The planet didn't have much else in terms of human made architecture, thus it had been really easy to find the only building capable of being a Lucian base. Rak'nor as well ringed down to the planet, looking intently at the rows of Jaffa moving towards the base. He was thinking how, after the endless thousands of years under the Goa'uld ruling, the Jaffa were finally turning into modern warriors or, as the Tau'ri would call them modern soldiers.

The Jaffa changed immensely in the past two years, something immediately apparent when he looked at his warriors now. Instead of having plasma staffs, they were now carrying a new type of plasma rifle, what the Tau'ri would call a weapon of war and not of terror. Their tactics also changed. There were no more senseless charges at the enemy, thinking there was nothing and no one capable of hurting them. Now, instead, the Jaffa were operating in small teams of five or maybe six Jaffa, clearly keeping down their heads while approaching their target. They were also using radios to communicate with each other so that the attack would be well synchronized and properly executed. It was immediately apparent that they had been trained in such tactics, with the Tau'ri having been the one to provide the necessary instructors to teach them.

Rak'nor hadn't liked it when he had to spend three months on the Tau'ri Alpha Site, going through endless drills and lectures in order to learn about modern warfare, the same tactics that, in the past, had allowed the Tau'ri to win against them with relative ease, even when they were in numerical inferiority. While training, Rak'nor had watched more diagrams and read more books than in his entire life, but as time passed by, he started to understand why the Tau'ri had been able to so easily win against them. The shear amount of various tactics, practically capable of covering every possible situation these people knew of, was stunning. During the lectures, he was able to make parallels with many battles they had lost against the Tau'ri by seemingly just changing tactics to suit the current situation. It was something the Jaffa had never done before. It didn't matter how many enemy combatants there was or what kind of weapon they had, they would have always ran senselessly towards the enemy with their heads high, trying to take to their deaths as many enemies as they could. The Tau'ri teaching had soon made him realize that keeping your head high usually only served to lose it more easily. Then, Rak'nor also realized that there was a good chance that, in the thousands of years under the Goa'uld oppression, the Goa'uld had actually taught them nothing on how to wage war. He now firmly believed the Goa'uld had liked more seeing grandiose battles with many deaths on both sides and that they'd served more as cannon fodder for their twisted pleasure than anything else.

Rak'nor snapped back from his thoughts of the past and returned into the present. Through his radio, he was receiving the progress his troops were making inside the Lucian base. He was content to hear they were able to quickly dispatch of any opposition they had found, but he wasn't happy he wasn't the one among those on the front line. It was one of the things the Tau'ri had thought them and that he didn't like very much. The commander is never the one to spearhead the attack. He is the head, the intelligence behind it, and his job is to oversee the entire operation from afar. That was why, while other Jaffa were training in the woods, he was spending in class rooms learning how to lead large numbers of combatants to victory. He was the officer in charge, he was the General, and he was not allowed to be in the thick of the battle. And yet, Rak'nor was clutching his rifle, wanting nothing more than to be inside that base and killing enemy combatants, combatants that he knew were responsible for the raids many Jaffa planets had sustained during the last two months. Rak'nor sighed inwardly, thinking that there was nothing he could do but wait. There wasn't even anything to tell his troops to change in the way they were executing the attack because they were doing everything right, the exact way they had been thought.

Half an hour later, the base was completely theirs. This was the moment when Rak'nor entered the large base, walking through the various corridors until he reached the main chamber where several Lucians, real Lucian leaders had been apprehended. He approached the tied group of people on the floor. Seeing how they weren't very happy at how this day had turned out, Rak'nor smiled at them.

"Finally someone to interrogate properly, someone that knows something, isn't that right?"

The people in the room said nothing, but the silence and their faces were telling Rak'nor enough. These people were high enough to know something and he would not stop until they told him everything they knew.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Asura  
**_Stardate: 2282.06_

John leaned on the small metallic railing next to Caldwell inside the third Asuran shipyard. The reason why Caldwell was here was because the shipyard was hosting his ship as well as the Odyssey. Those were the first two cruisers to undergo a complete refitting and the two ships had spent the last two weeks sitting here and doing nothing, something Caldwell didn't particularly like. In the beginning of his career as a spaceship captain, he didn't like spending so much time in space. He felt trapped in such a small area, not understanding how navy people could spend so much time on submarines without going stir crazy. Now, after many years aboard a spaceship, he felt like a fish out of the water whenever he would have to spend more than a day dirt-side.

"Don't worry, one more day and the ship will be good to go," John said, seeing that Caldwell was showing clear signs of space withdrawal.

"Yeah… well, a day is a lot."

"Hey, you should be happy you are not the captain of the Redemption," John said, referring to the much larger battleship in the second Asuran shipyard. "The ship will stay here for at least two more weeks. You should be also grateful these shipyards now have androids to help construction. They have increased our production speed by almost 30 percent."

"I suppose that is a way to look at it. You always need to find somebody who's in a worse position than you are and you immediately feel better," Caldwell said, thinking about the captain of the Redemption.

"Exactly. Once I was stranded in Afghanistan for days without water or food and with a broken leg. The only thing I had to do to realize how lucky I was, was to look at the dead body of my friend next to me."

"You do have a strange way to look at things, you know that don't you?"

"I do, but you know what they say. Whatever helps…" John explained his philosophy. "You should also look at what you're getting back. That ship will be a monster."

"That's true," Caldwell replied with a smile on his face.

The ship was getting a complete overhaul. The reactors had been modified to be with the specs of the fourth generation of Terran N/N reactors, which meant they could give twenty percent more power and they could even be pushed a little more for a short period of time without risking to burn half the ship. Of course, the chance of using that particular feature was almost nonexistent since the ship now had a micro-ZPM capable of being charged by the reactors when the ship wasn't using the power for something else like the hyperdrive, shields or weapons. Once fully charged, the micro-ZPM would be more than capable of providing the additional power the ship would usually need in a fight. The standard pedestal they had installed in the reactor room could hold three micro-ZPMs placed around a larger hole in the center that could hold a standard ZPM. Of course, the cruisers would get only one micro-ZPM, the battleships would get three or in the case of the Enterprise it would retain the central ZPM just like the D-306. After all, it was their flagship and the ship their commander-in-chief always used.

The weapons had also been switched with the new plasma beams the Terrans and Asgard had finished developing several months ago. The Daedalus would get the smaller version of the weapon while the battleships, now capable of producing the needed power thanks to three micro-ZPMs, would get both the larger version and the smaller one. One frontal and two lateral cannons would be of the larger model, plus the ship would get six more of the smaller version. The battleship was a much less maneuverable ship than the cruiser and it was a good thing to have cannons capable of firing at the enemy even if they weren't directly in front of the ship. Both ships would also get the new plasma repeaters, turrets capable of delivering massive damage to smaller ships at an unprecedented rate of fire, for that type of weapon at least. The railguns were still able to fire faster, but with less strength and they needed something stronger when facing smaller ships with shields.

Even the shields had been changed. An ideal shield would need the same amount of energy as the weapon that would strike them to block the weapon. That meant that such shield would have a coefficient of 1.0. In reality, you always needed more energy to stop the weapon that hit the shield. Until now, the shields had a coefficient of 1.47, but the scientists were able to adopt some theories used on the shields of the aurora and now it had a coefficient of 1.35, which meant the shield would lose 8% less energy every time it got hit. Of course this coefficient's value was what you'll get in a lab. As weapons strength goes up, as well as different type of them goes, the coefficient would also rise.

The shield generators also received some kind of failsafe to prevent a feedback loop from happening. A few scientists had developed some strange weapon similar to a zatgun, but on a spaceship scale. The weapon wasn't much since the shields were more than capable of stopping the weapon, but sometimes it could happen for the energy from the weapon to create some kind of feedback in the shield generators that would overload them for a short period of time. Since this wasn't a good thing to have on a ship, the scientists had to spend even more time trying to find a way to stop that from happening. You never know if an enemy could come up with something similar.

The last phase of the refit was the installation of a drone launch system. Caldwell wasn't that happy since it meant two cargo holds would have to be used for the drones. He didn't see the need for them, but since nobody asked him what he thought, he had to reluctantly watch as his ship now had two cargo holds less. The only positive side was that the drones wouldn't need the chair to be fired. Instead, the engineers were able to reverse engineer the system the Asurans used on their ships that, in their opinion, was more user-friendly, especially since only a few Terrans were capable of operating the chair without causing unwanted damage to anything nearby.

"So, are you ready for your next mission?" John asked Caldwell.

"I'm always ready for my next mission," Caldwell deadpanned.

"Okaaay, let me rephrase that. What do you think of your next mission?"

"I like the idea of a long term mission of exploration. After this refit, the Daedalus will be more than capable of taking care of itself against practically anything. The idea is also good. We need to explore a larger area than what we have done so far and exploring a few satellite galaxies that we know don't have humans, is a very good idea. We could meet other races and learn a lot from them, much more than from other humans."

"Yeah, I think that too. I only hope the translation program we have will prove to be as good as our scientists are saying it is," John said thinking of one of the research project the replicators had done in an attempt to better understand living beings. The first phase was to have a device that could learn and subsequently translate another language almost instantly. Without it, meeting other races would be incredibly difficult and prone to mishaps that can lead to a firefight just because nobody understood what was being said. And expect for the galaxies that had stargates, there was a great chance that was exactly what would happen.

"Me too. It's practically the key element in this whole exploration thing. At least we know it worked with those grey aliens we met."

"Yeah, but one race doesn't mean it will always work and even with them, there had been a few glitches. I'm also not sure if it's such a good idea to send the Daedalus and the Odyssey on separate missions. Maybe it would be a good thing if the two ships were at least in the same galaxy, so you can help each other if the need arises."

"I don't think that is necessary. As I've already said, the ship is more than capable of taking care of itself and its crew, and this way we will canvas a much larger area in them same time span. We also have a few rendezvous points and if one ship doesn't show up we will know something is wrong."

"You are right, I'm worrying too much."

"Well, that's your job's description. By the way, what's the Redemption's mission? I thought we would have sent one of our big guns into the unknown?"

"Yeah, we thought we would, but the other six battleships are still being constructed on Tollana and the Auroras are getting upgraded too, and the Council wants at least one battleship in both galaxies at all times. Even now the council is not too happy the Redemption's still in dry dock. That's also why the Enterprise won't be refitted until the other six are ready for liftoff or the Auroras get upgraded. And those Auroras, when they get all the upgrades, with the new ENI generators and the new plasma beam weapons will be monsters, on par with the D-306. The only thing they can't install on them is the anti-proton cannon; something about having to dismantle half the ship to do that," John said. The Auroras, the D-306 and the SC-310 were the only ships big enough to get the new ENI generators installed.

"Why are they so paranoid?"

John sighed, "There are rumors the Ori are coming for round two."

"What? Why are they sending me to another galaxy then?"

"Because, even though they are paranoid, they also know we can't just drop everything we are doing and wait for the Ori to show up. The initial plan also had four ships going on exploration missions and not two. The shipyards on Terrania, Tollana and Terra Nova are building more ships nonstop and they are building more shipyards as well. I don't know if it is the Ori or something else that scares Jack so much, but for some reason, in the last two years, we have tripled our shipbuilding capacity and there is no sign of slowing down any time soon. They ended the production of the BD-304s, AF-308 and SF-307 and now all shipyards are building the larger ships or upgrading what we already have," John said, not knowing that the real reason for the sudden increase was the dream Liam had about what he believed was a Vargas fleet. Only the council members had been apprised of that information since there was no reason to alarm people just because of a dream.

"I have to admit, this _is_ strange, especially since things have quieted down a lot. The Ori have been beaten, the Wraith have gone into hibernation and even the Guardians don't have to worry about the Senari anymore. Someone would think we would have dialed down our military expenditure."

"I know, and ships are not the only thing they have increased production of. The research department is already researching the third generation of personal armor and weapons, as well as of tanks, vipers and raptors. We haven't even used the second generation and we are already trying to make something even better."

"Well, I for once really don't know what they can come up with in the next research cycle. Did you see the second generation tanks and APC's. They have an armor that you would probably need to fire one of our new plasma beams to dent the thing, and they even have a shield protecting them," Caldwell said, exaggerating a little but not by much. "And what more can they do to those tanks that they haven't done already?"

"They are probably trying to place an Asgard shield on the thing, with a micro-ZPM to power it and instead of the usual cannon, it will have a plasma beam cannon or maybe even two," John said, laughing at how ridiculous it sounded.

Caldwell as well started laughing, sharing the same sentiment, but then the two men looked at each other, suddenly not sure anymore if this actually wasn't what the people at R&D were trying to do. Their laugh slowly subsided, both men a little mystified by all that was happening.

"Nah! That would be too much even for those guys at R&D," John said.

"I don't know. I have heard rumors that a lot of people have started yelling '_we want that too!' _after they saw the Guardians on Langara with their armors, especially those reapers looking like the main character in the crysis game."

"Yeah, I've heard those rumors too."

"I just don't know. We gave the bloody nose to the Ori on both Langara and in space, so why are we making so many military advancements so fast?"

"I don't know either, and it scares me. Elizabeth turned green when she saw what the Council was planning. She's still asking questions, but without any answers."

"And she's making your life miserable, isn't she?"

"Yeah. She thinks, since I'm military, that I know something and she also thinks I'm lying to her when I'm saying that I know nothing. I'll have to talk to Jack about this again and this time I'll have to be much more insistent than the last time."

"You do that. Pity I won't be here to hear it."

The two men fell silent after having vented some of their frustration. Guessing the reason why all this was happening was pointless and somehow John was also certain his talk with Jack would leave him with even more questions.

Caldwell excused himself. It was time for him to return to his ship to oversee the final changes and to start testing the various systems before leaving the dry dock. John as well decided he had spent enough time looking at the two ships in the shipyard and to return to his usual duties, mostly behind his desk with a ton of paperwork on it. He blamed Jack for that too and he envied people like Caldwell and Lorne for they have remained true to their calling; as opposed to him.

* * *

**Furling Galaxy –Batari Space Station  
**_Stardate: 2292.26_

On board the space station orbiting the Batari planet, the alien, the same one that had once before informed the Captain of the Intrepid how they were not authorized to come any closer, was working frantically on his console. The reason why he was doing so with apparent urgency was because of the three Sanarians standing behind him. The Sanarians were by no standard a large and muscular race. The alien on the console was much stronger and bigger than they were, but that didn't mean anything. The Sanarians were a race feared by all, not because they were physically strong, but because everyone who knew them knew that crossing them in any way meant sooner or later getting stubbed in the back. Even if the alien managed to subdue the three Sanarians in the room, he knew more would come to avenge them. The Sanarians were born assassins who would sneak up on you when least expected and would kill you without being able to even see their faces.

The Sanarians had a strange code of honor too. If one of them died by the hand of another, anywhere except in a sanctioned duel, other Sanarians of his clan were obligated to avenge his death and they would attempt to do so no matter for how long it took or how many Sanarians died in the attempt. And this was something that happened on their planet regularly. When other aliens were involved, things got even worse. Then, there was no single clan that needed to avenge the dead, but any living Sanarian had that obligation. Of course, there were other rules on how to solve the dispute. If there weren't, the Sanarians would have turned extinct a long time ago. There was a rule where the person who killed a Sanarian could call for a duel, and no matter what the outcome of the duel was, the dispute was deemed settled. The only problem with the rule was that the offended Sanarians was the one to choose how the duel was to be fought and the Sanarians were known for being master swordsmen, rivaled by none in the known universe.

Knowing all this, the alien worked franticly on the console in front of him in an attempt to not anger the Sanarians standing behind him. He pushed a few last keystrokes on the console and the monitor in front of him displayed the image of the Intrepid.

"Is this the ship you are looking for?"

The closest Sanarian looked at the image for a few seconds, "It is."

"Then you don't need me anymore," the alien said, wanting nothing more than for the Sanarians to leave.

"Not quite. I need to know how the race on board that ship looks like."

The Alien nodded and the next moment the image of the captain of the ship appeared on the screen. It was from the recording of their conversation.

"Did they send someone on the planet?"

The alien again checked something in the station's logs before replying, "A shuttle departed the larger ship and went on Batari, but I don't know if they are still there or if they have left."

The Sanarians nodded, "Now we are done. You will not mention our visit here to anyone."

"Of course."

The Sanarians without a word exited the room. After the alien was certain they had finally left, he took a deep breath, clearly relieved.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**


	9. Duplicity

**Author's note: Not much to say, so let's get right to the responses.**

**stormwolf3710: **Unfortunately, I haven't read any of the books written during and after the shows. Somehow, after SGU ended and the movies got canceled, I went writing my own continuation of the show rather than reading about it. Many SF stories I've read or watched turn out to have similar elements. There is only so much you can invent in the first place. Well, how I look at it is that, you never go around looking for trouble, troubles usually find you. Besides, they did wait for more than two years after the Wraith and the Ori went dark. The point is that canvasing nearby satellite galaxies that are not much more distant then what it would take to traverse the Milky Way galaxy, is something they should do in any case. Since satellite galaxies circle around the MW, it is very possible that at some point a satellite galaxy is closer to Earth than the other side of the MW is.

**Nagato: **Glad to be of assistance. Sometimes I would like to be able to write even more, but I'm spending enough time on this story as it is, so...

**Senrab Nomis: **Well, that is the problem with devious, sneaky plans. They work great until you get caught. The Terrans had stopped making the 304s, instead diverting their building capacity to make bigger and meaner ships, but also the newer assault frigates that can be built in a third of the time of a 304. This way, they hope to have enough ships meant for patrol duty and exploration of the various galaxies while also be able to build enough capital ships to face stronger enemies. The 304 turns out to be neither for patrol duty, nor to face something like a hive on its own.

**apocalyps24: **good idea except for the law of conservation of mass. Still, it is possible to make such organic probe, but the eggs once they hatch would need to find a source of food as all organic creatures need to sustain and to grow in size. After all you can't get two pounds of whatever from one pound. It would turn out that to canvas the 100 billion stars they would need to make the same number of ... um... _predatory_ probes that need to eat to survive and multiply. ;)

**EvilTheLast: **the story will slowly progress throughout all three books, with the allies and the enemies slowly getting bigger and bigger, with battles inevitably following in the same fashion. You can already predict that the end battle will be... epic.

**Thanks to my beta. Hope you enjoy this chapter too.**

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Babylon One  
**_stardate: 2306.11_

Woolsey stood in the middle of the Command Center of the large space station he was in charge of. As he looked at the large display in front of him, he didn't like what he was seeing. Less than an hour ago, he got the report of some disturbances in the Common Area. At the time, he thought someone had started a fight, but that theory of his didn't last for long as more reports started pouring in, explaining how the gray aliens had started taking control of several areas. Their sheer number had been enough to subdue the small security force in the Common Area very quickly, apparently even without having any weapons with them. Woolsey thought how it would have been even worse if they hadn't installed a clear policy of no weapons on the station.

Now the aliens were in control of all the stun weapons the security forces had and somehow they had, as if from thin air, also procured other weapons that they must have somehow brought on the station. That also made him think that the trouble they were having with security cameras and sensors going dark was not just because of people trying to make shady business on the station, but also to facilitate this full blown invasion. As much as he could tell, there were at least five hundred aliens bent on breaching into other, more secure, areas not usually accessible to visitors. The station of course went into a complete lockdown, sealing off the Common Area, with Colonel Lorne having been informed of the situation. As protocol dictated, the first thing was to secure the more sensible areas, like the CIC Woolsey was in, Engineering and the Hangar Bay.

The situation went from bad to worse when warships started showing up. Other alien ships that had been docked on the station's arms had quickly disengaged and disappeared. Good thing too because that had allowed the station to retract the docking arms and bring the massive shield as tightly close to its hull as possible. The two dozen alien warships were keeping their distance, probably having decided to wait for their comrades to take control of the station rather than having to face its defenses.

The first thing Woolsey had tried to do was to send a distress call to Atlantis, but apparently the aliens were quick enough to start broadcasting some kind of interference, blocking any attempt he made to call for help. He really didn't like the situation he was in and he didn't even know if the station was able to win in a battle against so many alien warships, especially since the Terrans never found out the real capabilities of the alien ships.

"Colonel Lorne, do you have a plan on how to retake the Common Area?" Woolsey asked.

"We are still securing the areas around it to stop the aliens from breaching containment. It's too soon to start talking about retaking the Common Area."

"Why is it too soon? Why can't we plan both?"

Lorne knew why, but he also knew he would need even more time to explain it to Woolsey than to simply go through their options, "Alright, we can discuss it. We have two major problems we must overcome in order to retake the Common Area."

"And they are?"

"First, they have almost five to one the number of troops in their favor. The good thing is that they are weakly armed compared to what we have, but still, we don't want to get into a close fight with them if we don't want to sustain heavy losses on our side."

"And the second problem?"

"The second problem is civilians being used as shield. So far the aliens haven't paid much attention at the thousands of guests that are trapped with them in the Common Area, but that can change very quickly if we attack them."

Woolsey thought about the diplomatic nightmare if their guests started dying in there. Many embassies have already called, outraged how the Terrans had let something like this to happen in the first place. If people started dying, it would be much worse, "That means a frontal assault is not recommended. Is that what you are saying?"

"It is. If we can't find a way to quickly subdue them, this can easily turn out into a massacre. And I don't know of a way to quickly subdue five hundred enemy combatants."

"Fine, what about asking for help? Is there a way to neutralize the interference field those ships out there are creating?"

"A few scientists are working on it, but so far they were not able to find a way, although, I do have an idea on how to call for help, even with the jamming still up."

"I'm listening."

"We use our vipers."

"Colonel, I know you greatly value your fighters, but I don't think they have what it takes to win in a battle against a dozen warships and probably hundreds of enemy fighters that are circling in the system."

"I wasn't suggesting we go fight the warships."

"Then, what else _is_ there?"

"The vipers have a short range hyperdrive. If a viper is able to jump the half light-year distance, it would put the fighter well outside the system and with that, outside the interference. If we rig the viper with a booster, it should be able to send a signal for someone to pick it up."

'Yeah, with our luck, probably the Wraith,' Woolsey thought. "It's risky going outside and wouldn't it be easier to just descend on the planet's surface and call for help through the gate?"

"We have no communication with the surface, and the aliens must have neutralized the compound with the stargate a long time ago. If they didn't, our people down there would have dialed Atlantis already."

Woolsey was not convinced. He didn't like sending a fighter on what would probably turn out to be a suicide mission, but he couldn't find any other way to send for help. And once help comes and the warships are taken care of, he knew the aliens inside could be easily beamed away by their ships.

Lorne listened to his earpiece notifying him there was some problem down in the hangar levels. Apparently, the aliens were trying to breach through the defenses Lorne's men had emplaced there. "Look Mr. Woolsey, we have some problems down at the hangar levels and I'm going down there. Do I have a go with this mission or not?"

Thinking quickly since there was no time to waste, Woolsey replied, "Yes, you have a go."

Lorne nodded, moving quickly to the central elevator that would take him down to the Hangar Bay's main level.

* * *

**Furling Galaxy – Batari Planet  
**_Stardate: 2306.62_

Aaron awoke in the small room he and Garen had been sharing for the past month and a half. He slowly got up, rubbing his eyes in an effort to shake off the sleepiness he was still feeling. He moved to the window, the one next to his bed, before turning back and looking at Garen. Garen was still fast asleep, snoring like a five hundred horse power truck he once saw in a movie he'd watched with Sheppard. It was amazing how loudly the man could snore. They could be having a party going on in the room and Garen would still remain asleep, his snoring probably still being the loudest sound in the room. He envied the man. He had always been a light sleeper and Garen's snoring like a truck didn't help improve his REM time one bit.

Looking back outside the window, Aaron saw the first light of dawn expose the strange city he and his team were in. This last month and a half had been peculiar to say the least. He knew beforehand that infiltrating a crime organization would mean doing things he usually would never do, and he did do many he would very much like to forget, but even he could not see to some of the jobs Laskar had offered him. The moment he heard what the jobs were, he had outright declined them.

With lack of any type of authority on the planet, meaning there would be no investigation or punishment, the usual way to deal with unwanted people was to send someone to take care of them, in a very permanent manner. Aaron told Laskar that, while he had no problem helping him in his shady businesses by protecting some cargo, or even beating up somebody who didn't behave like Laskar would want him to, he was definitely not an assassin for hire. It looked as if Laskar wasn't happy to hear that. Up to that point, Aaron believed Laskar liked his team, but when he said he wouldn't go around killing people, Laskar didn't approve. No matter, his resolve on the issue eventually won the argument and Laskar had decided to get the matter slide, saying that he had others ready to do that kind of job. Aaron was glad, in a way. He knew that with people like Laskar there are only two ways their partnership could continue. One was by Laskar agreeing with his terms and continuing to do business together, and the other was by ending up dead if Laskar didn't like the limitations he had placed. No matter how he would always see Laskar smiling all cheerful, he knew the man was dangerous.

In this month and a half, his team had performed dozens of missions, some of which had ended in firefights while others ended without incidents. As mission after mission had gone by, they began to be paid better and better, and Laskar started to trust them more and more. This last part was much more important to him who couldn't care less for the money he was getting. A week ago, Aaron had decided enough time had passed and that it was time to ask Laskar for the information they were after and that he knew Laskar would be able to acquire for them, for the right price of course. He asked Laskar for any information he could find about an ancient race, a race the N'Gati had a long time ago worshipped as gods. He couldn't tell Laskar the real reason why he needed the information, instead simply stating that they were treasure hunters. Laskar replied that many had tried to find that particular race and something they were calling their legacy, but nobody ever found anything. Aaron understood there was only a small chance they would succeed where others had failed for so long, but he still wanted all the information Laskar could dig up.

Waking up the five hundred horse power truck sleeping in the bed beside his, the two of them started dressing up in their nanosuits in preparation to meet with Laskar, for what Aaron believed was going to be the last time. Laskar had sent him a message informing Aaron he had found whatever he could about the ancient race and that they should meet.

Exiting the building into the parking lot, the four members walked the short distance to the shuttle. As they approached the craft's hatch, they found an alien lying on the ground near it with what looked like some kind of crowbar. The poor guy had been electrocuted by fifty thousand volts and this had been the fifth attempt that they knew of from this guy to try and steal their shuttle, ever since the day they had started parking here a month and a half ago. It was starting to look really ridiculous. Aaron remembered someone saying that trying something in the exact same way repeatedly, every time expecting a different outcome, is a good sign of insanity. This guy then was completely nuts, probably fried too from a few too many electrocutions. The five of them stepped over the unconscious alien, one after the other, on their way inside the shuttle. The next moment the shuttle took off with the alien regaining consciousness and looking sadly at his prize leaving.

Half an hour later, the shuttle landed on the same roof as the first time they came to the planet. The team had a few more hours before the Intrepid rendezvoused with them, but that didn't mean they didn't want this whole thing to end as soon as possible. The team quickly moved from the roof to inside the building, using the elevator in order to reach the floor where Laskar had his private office. Walking through the lobby, the team stepped inside the room where they found Laskar sitting behind his desk as it was the usual place for him to be found.

Stepping closer, Aaron was the first to speak, "Laskar."

"Oh, my most trusted team is finally here," Laskar said, smiling.

"You said you found what we were looking for," Aaron replied, skipping the usual pleasantries. Maybe it wasn't smart to hasten things, but Aaron was really fed up with this world and he wanted to leave as soon as possible.

"Straight to business I see. Well, let's get to it then." Laskar took a small crystal from his desk-drawer and put it on top of it. "This crystal contains everything I was able to find about the unknown ancient race. You do know Aaron that this is going to cost you?"

"I do. How much?"

"500.000 credits," Laskar said, again smiling.

Laskar was smart. He knew that in this month and a half he had paid them just a little over that amount. He apparently wanted his money back, "You are putting a hard bargain Laskar. Five hundred thousand credits is a lot of money. Actually that number is incredibly close to how much you paid us so far."

"Well, it wasn't easy to find what you were looking for. I believe this to be a fair price, and a price I know you can pay," Laskar said, this time smiling so much that even his teeth were clearly visible.

This was a standard _who-will-screw-whom-more_ kind of situation. On one side Laskar had put a price much higher than it really needed to be just because he knew they had the money and because he was convinced they really wanted the information badly. On the other hand, Laskar didn't know that Aaron couldn't care less about the money. Once he left the planet, he would probably never set foot on this shithole ever again. The major problem Aaron was having was not knowing if the crystal actually had anything useful on it.

"Fine Laskar, but I want your personal guarantee the data is genuine and not some crap you pieced together in your spare time."

"I'm hurt you would even think I would do such a thing. You can be assured, the information inside the crystal is legit, but I have to warn you. A lot of what is contained on the crystal is in the ancient race written language, and nobody knows how to read it."

"We have people that are well versed in decrypting that kind of thing."

"But many have tried for a very long time and without any success. Without the ability to read it, the data is useless. Why would you still want it?"

This part didn't sit well with Aaron. Laskar was above all a businessman and if somebody wanted to buy a pile of horseshit for five hundred thousand credits, he would give them the pile without asking any questions, and maybe even try to rip them off by a few pounds. Here, instead, Laskar was asking a lot of questions that didn't help make the deal. On the contrary, explaining to Aaron that the data on the crystal was probably useless could only make Aaron decide to break the deal. So, the question was – _Why was Laskar asking so many questions?_

"What's with the third degree Laskar? I said I'm willing to pay."

Laskar was thoughtful for a long time. As he had already come to know, Aaron wasn't a fool. Laskar sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, he replied, "I'm sorry Aaron, but there are people interested in why you want this information and they apparently have a grudge with your people."

Aaron knew immediately what race might have such a grudge, "Sanarians."

"Yes, the Sanarians. And you don't fuck with the Sanarians if you want to live!"

"I know, I was told," Aaron replied, but now he was more interested in why Laskar was telling him this instead of having them surrounded. "Why are you telling me this Laskar?"

"Because, despite what you think of me, I like you Aaron. I knew for a very long time that you didn't like doing the jobs I was giving you, but you did them anyway because you had a mission to complete and only when I asked of you something that was more than what you were ready to do, you refused. I respect that in a man. I'm also fed up with the Sanarians terrorizing us all, and I have the slight impression your people are the one who can put a stop to it."

Aaron was plastered. He really didn't think of Laskar as the kind of man that had morals or that he cared for anyone except himself. Apparently, he was wrong, "I don't know what to say. Thank you… I suppose. What will happen now?"

"Now you give me the money and I give you the crystal. Then you leave. There is nothing I can do to help you with what is awaiting for you outside that door."

Aaron gave the money to Laskar and took the crystal from the desk. "Thanks for the heads up."

"Don't mention it. It was a pleasure. Oh, and as a last gift, be wary of their swords. They have a molecular blade that can cut even through your armor."

First of all, Laskar didn't know about their armor being capable of projecting a tight shield around them, and second, the team had molecular blades of their own. Aaron took out his blade that quickly unfolded to more than twenty inches in length, "You mean like this one?" Aaron said, grinning widely.

"I knew I was betting on the right horse," Laskar replied, smiling. "Oh! Can you do me one last favor?"

"What?"

"Don't leave any Sanarians behind, please. They tend to be very irritated after they lose and I don't want to be the target of their irritability after you leave."

"I'll do my best Laskar."

"Enough for me."

As the conversation ended, the four members of the team took their folded rifles from their backs, quickly unfolding them and ready to be used. Their helmets reformed from their necks, sealing up their armored suits. It was time to see what was outside. With a grin Nirim and Shilla activated their cloak while Aaron and Garen activated their shields. Opening the door slowly, only by few inches, Aaron was able to see at least six Sanarians in the lobby. He noticed two places, one on the left and one on the right, where he and Garen could take cover without taking hits, but to reach them they would have to cross half the lobby. A quick exchange of a few words and the two of them sped out of the office at superhuman speed, startling even the Sanarians in the room. Having a nanosuit capable of increasing your speed was really helpful. The Sanarians didn't even start shooting when the two of them were already behind the two nooks on opposite sides, perfect for shooting and hiding. The first volley from Garen's plasma rifle took out one of the Sanarians still clueless of what was happening, but the others were quick enough to find cover of their own, especially since they had more time to prepare for this fight. The five remaining Sanarians were returning fire at the two of them, but without managing to score a hit. Also, instead of firing, at least one of them should have asked the obvious question. Where were the other two humans?

Unknown to the Sanarians, Nirim and Shilla had sneaked through the center of the lobby unnoticed. Once behind the Sanarians they dropped their cloaks and raised their shields. The next moment, they let loose a storm of plasma bolts. The last Sanarian still alive tried to turn and fire at the two humans that had, somehow, appeared from behind, but by doing so he leaned too much, enough for Aaron to take a clear shot. The last Sanarian dropped with a burning hole in the back of his head.

The whole time Laskar watched the action unfold, "Oh, the Sanarians are in a world of hurt with these people."

Aaron nodded once more to Laskar in gratitude, just before entering the elevator. Inside, he tried to contact the shuttle, but there was no response. Checking his readings displayed on his helmet's visor he quickly found out there was a jamming field around the building. All communications channels were blocked with no way of contacting their shuttle. This didn't bode well. There was no way now to know what they were going to find on the roof.

The roof wasn't all open space and that gave them hope. The main landing pads were in the center of the roof and everywhere around it, there were parking spots for the shuttles that could be hauled if the owners wanted to stay for a longer period. Every parking spot had at least two walls on both sides in order to separate them, walls that could act as cover if the need arose. The elevator also didn't directly lead to the open space of the roof. Instead, the elevator would open in a small lobby that had a door leading to the landing pads. All this made Aaron believe that no matter how many enemies there were on the roof, they still had places where they could take cover, and that was something that would greatly increase their chances of survival. That was of course if every last Sanarian wasn't waiting for them in the lobby.

The four members waited what felt like eternity for the elevator to bring them on the top of the building. Once the elevator finally stopped, the door opened and the four Sanarians who were standing in front of it remained puzzled. There was no one inside. It was their last thought before a hail of plasma bolts came from the inside of the elevator, taking down all four of them. Peeking out of the elevator, the team found there was no one left around. They moved outside, quickly taking cover behind the wall on the opposite side and next to the door leading outside, the last line before the landing pads where, supposedly, their shuttle should be. Again leaning in order to see what was outside, Aaron found there was no shuttle to speak of, but instead there was an alien craft landed. The team quickly realized the craft belonged to the Sanarians. There was also a dozen Sanarians all around it to support that theory and a few of them were already moving in their direction, probably as a result of having heard the shots. This was a problem. Also, twelve Sanarians wasn't an easy adversary to take down. The second problem was the ship, which if it took off it could fire from above and they doubted they could damage the thing with their handheld weapons. The third problem was their ride was gone, probably under cloak somewhere. At least that was what Aaron was hoping. This last part wouldn't be that bad if they could call it, but since there was a jamming field all around the place, they didn't know how to achieve that. The last bad news was when the elevator started going down, which meant somebody could soon be coming up and nobody believed they would be friendly.

Thinking quickly, Aaron devised a plan of action. He made the assumption that the ship in the middle of the roof was the one with the jamming device. If they could take it out, they could call their ride.

As in many battles, the key here was misdirection. Again Aaron and Garen engaged their shields and went guns blazing against the twelve Sanarians on the roof, quickly moving sideways towards a wall of one of the many parking spots located far away from the enemy craft. Without waiting, the Sanarians took the cue, quickly moving to challenge the two invaders. In the meantime, Nirim and Shilla moved under their cloak straight at the, by now, lonely Sanarian craft. Once they reached it, they saw the back side was open. Grinning widely, they both took two plasma grenades and tossed them inside. They managed to get half way back to where the elevator was when an explosion spreading blue plasma fire engulfed the entire craft.

In the meantime, Aaron and Garen were having their hands full trying to fend off the by now eleven remaining Sanarians, with the explosion giving them at least a few moments of breathing time since the Sanarians took the time to turn and see what happened to their ride. Another Sanarian paid with his life this act of stupidity as Aaron took the opportunity and time to aim properly and hit the alien square in the head. Two against ten were still bad odds, but they knew Nirim and Shilla would soon add their fire to the mix.

As predicted the firefight went on with the four of them firing at the Sanarians only to get fired back by the same. Unknown to Aaron though, one of the Sanarians managed to sneak behind him and, while he wasn't looking, he reached him and slashed with his sword. Aaron instinctively moved just in time, although maybe it would have been better if the sword hit his personal shield instead of his rifle that ended up being cut in half. The Sanarian swung two more times, both times Aaron managing to evade by stepping backwards. He also, somehow, managed to get his own blade out. The third blow was stopped by his blade and, whilst the two swords where still connected high above their heads, Aaron pushed the Sanarian with his leg raised high at the alien's chest. The Sanarian went flying, hitting the ground several meters back. Not having the time to find out who was better at sword fighting, Aaron just took his holstered gun out and shot the guy while he was still lying on the ground. This whole ordeal had lasted for much longer than he would have liked it.

Watching the sensor readings the display was showing him, he knew all four members of his team had been hit at least a few times, with the shield strength indicator as clear indication of that fact. He didn't know if their shields would hold for more than a few more hits.

Salvation came in the form of their shuttle decloaking above them and shooting from its phase cannon at the Sanarians on the roof. Maybe in space-fights phase cannons looked like precision beams meant to pierce through shields or hull, but here the phase cannon looked more like an earth shattering weapon of incredible power. Every hit created massive explosions that rocked the entire roof, so much that a few times the team barely managed to remain on their feet even though they weren't even near the targeted area. Blow after blow, explosion after explosion, the Sanarians were quickly and surely cut down to the molecular level. Aaron was glad. This exercise had lasted for long enough. Once the shuttlecraft had landed, the team quickly entered inside and under the craft's cloak the ship went straight into space.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Babylon One  
**_Stardate: 2306.41_

A lonely viper quickly left the large space station under its cloak. Without it, this whole exercise would be impossible because just outside weapons range of the station there were twelve warships with at least a hundred fighters circling around. The viper would have barely made it outside the protective bubble of the shield before being quickly dispatched of. With a cloak on the other hand, the chances were on his side. The enemy did notice the opening of the hangar doors and their fighters did change course to be closer in case something came out, but they couldn't see anything exit the hangar. Still, they did see the viper dropping its cloak before opening a hyperspace window and disappearing inside it. The viper could not enter hyperspace with the shield or cloak active, there simply wasn't enough energy in the small vessel to do something like that.

It didn't take long for a single enemy warship to enter a hyperspace window of its own.

No more than .4 light years away, well outside the system, a hyperspace window opened again, letting the small viper revert to normal space. The voyage, as well as the use of the cloak, had taxed the craft's energy reserves and the pilot was now waiting for the small generator to pump enough juice in the capacitors to allow him to send the distress signal. With the rigged booster, in order to be able to send a signal to much greater distances, the viper needed much more juice than usual. The pilot didn't wait a second longer than he needed and, the moment the capacitors were charged, he immediately started broadcasting the distress call. Coinciding with the beginning of the broadcast, another hyperspace window tore open, depositing a much larger ship. The pilot of the viper knew the odds of such a duel were not on his side. He immediately engaged the sublight engines at maximum thrust, moving quickly away from the much larger ship. The ship was following behind and it was only a matter of time before it was able to catch up with the smaller one.

Three minutes later, the viper pilot was already doing evasive actions in order to dodge the many energy blasts directed at him. This was the point where the suicidal portion of the mission was reached. The viper's energy reserves were so low that there was no chance of opening a hyperspace window, and even if it could, there was nowhere to go since the space station was surrounded by enemy ships. Even the shield could not be raised, although it wouldn't help much against fire from a capital ship.

As the pilot of the small craft prepared himself for the inevitable end of his life, with the hope that he at least succeeded in sending a message that someone might have picked up, another, larger, hyperspace window tore open and the Valhalla exited only light seconds from his location. It wasn't strange that the Asgard were the first to show up, with their hyperdrives capable of crossing galactic distances in matter of hours. It also became more or less a rule to see at least a few Asgard ships in both the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies so it wasn't strange at all for this ship to be in the vicinity when the distress call was sent.

The pilot listened as the viper was receiving a broadcast from the newly arrived ship, "_Unknown vessel, desist from your pursuit or you will be destroyed. We the Asgard do not take kindly of any hostility towards any of the member races of the Second Great Alliance,_" the voice of Thor was heard.

The massive, but also very fast Asgard capital ship, quickly stepped in-between the small viper and the chasing warship. The warship without thought opened fire at the Asgard vessel. Big mistake! The Asgard vessel charged its frontal Heavy Plasma Beams, immediately letting loose of the deadly lances. The beams struck the alien ship's shields only to proceed further without impediment, piercing the hull of the once proud warship. Secondary explosions quickly destroyed the little that remained after the first strike.

"_Terran viper, disengage your engines and prepare to be transferred inside the ship," _Thor broadcasted again.

"Acknowledged. Thanks for the help by the way."

"No need to thank me. It was a pleasure."

Once its engines were offline, the entire viper was beamed inside the massive Valhalla, just moments before it entered hyperspace.

* * *

**Furling Galaxy – Intrepid  
Stardate: 2306.92**

The slick Intrepid rapidly decelerated back into normal space. The ship had just entered the Batari system on its way to the scheduled rendezvous point with the team that had spent six weeks alone in this place. The captain hadn't liked it. Every time Aaron contacted him, he wanted to hear nothing more than that they had finished their mission and how they were finally ready to leave, but every week Aaron only said how they needed more time. Finally, yesterday, Aaron contacted him again and this time he was glad to hear the mission was finally over. The idea of leaving men for whom he was directly responsible alone and for longer periods of time wasn't very high on his list.

As the ship pushed deeper into the Batari system, the sensor officer noticed something, "Captain, the sensors are detecting the same spatial interference as when we encountered the N'Gati."

The captain knew what that meant and he didn't like it. Not that he was that surprised though. In the last week, they had detected increased Sanarian activity in this region of space. Also, while meeting a few races on their search for the Furling, they had told them the Sanarians were looking for them and that they should be very careful. The captain also understood from the many conversations he had with the new races they met, that nobody really liked the Sanarians. In fact, most races believed the Sanarians were the scourge of the galaxy, spreading terror wherever they went. The N'Gati were the only race so far capable of opposing them, with the majority of the other races looking the other way and hoping the Sanarians would leave them alone. This was also something the captain didn't like, "How many?"

"Six so far. They have the same pattern as the last time, except for one anomaly that is bigger."

It meant they could be facing five of the same ships they have faced the last time plus one new type they haven't yet crossed paths with. "Try to contact the team."

The comm. officer worked, and then worked a little longer on his console. Finally there was a response. The face of a very happy Aaron appeared on the main screen, "Captain Atan, I'm glad to see you."

"Commander, be aware there are cloaked Sanarian warships in the system. Where are you?"

"We are in orbit around Batari under cloak sir. Good to know there are Sanarian ships around here. Our sensors were unable to detect them at all. Where should we meet?"

"For now stay in orbit. We don't know if the Batari can detect you while you're cloaked and your shuttle won't survive an encounter with them. I'll let you know when it's safe."

"Acknowledged."

The communication ended, leaving the captain with the next task he needed to perform. To take care of the Sanarians before the shuttle could safely dock. Even though the captain was more than certain that in a fair fight he could win against a Sanarian warship, six against one was not something he could call a winnable situation.

"Sir, the Sanarian ships are approaching our position."

"Good, if they think we can't see them, we should be able to hit them with their pants down. Prepare to raise shields and to bring the weapons online on a moment's notice. Prepare Type I Photon torpedoes in all launch tubes, maximum yield. And contact the rest of the fleet and tell them to stay cloaked until we fire first," The captain ordered.

The Photon torpedoes were fast and lightweight antimatter torpedoes with a variable yield. Before the torpedo is placed inside the launch tube, it is filled with a certain amount of antimatter. The Type I can hold up to half a pound of antimatter with a final yield of ten megatons and it's the fastest torpedo the Guardians have ever designed.

"Fire and raise shields on my mark," the captain said as he watched the six Sanarian ships approaching under their cloak. It was a game of perfect timing where the captain needed to fire the torpedoes as well as raise the shield at a precise moment. "Mark!"

Five torpedoes exited from all five frontal tubes of the Intrepid, spreading toward five of the six incoming warships. Noticing the five glowing stars coming their way, the Sanarian ships dropped their cloak and raised shields, but for two of them it was already too late. Five massive explosions took place in the usually very quiet emptiness of space, with two ships adding two more explosions from their reactors blowing up.

The four remaining ships fired their energy weapons at the Intrepid that had its shields already raised. Quick evasive maneuvers succeeded in evading two of the four energy beams. As the Intrepid made a narrow turn, the ship fired at one of the four remaining Sanarian ships, the same moment as two Edenian ships decloaked adding their own fire into the midst.

Having heard from many races that this region was now filled with Sanarian ships looking for them, had made the captain think it was time to call for backup. In the last month and a half, the Edenians were able to produce two more ships. Instead of the Intrepid Class configuration the Edenians had built first, two much larger ships meant more for battle than for exploration had been built this time. With the new ships being more than double the size of the Intrepid, they also had more than five times the firepower.

Several phase cannons from each of the two Titan class ships scored multiple hits, quickly depleting the opponent's shields. The Sanarian ships as a direct result spread to fight the now multiple opponents, but the battle was not going in their favor. Only the larger, almost six hundred meters Sanarian ship was able to at least dent the larger ship's shields, and when another Sanarian ship started drifting aimlessly after having been pierced by a phase cannon, they must have also realized that fact. The three remaining Sanarian ships quickly turned, speeding away at warp speed.

The fight was over, but this encounter had given the Edenians another opportunity. One of the Sanarian warships was adrift. An opportunity to take some prisoners as well as to see what data could be retrieved from their databanks. Captain Atan also knew they needed to work fast if they didn't want to lose this chance.

While the Intrepid proceeded to rendezvous with the shuttle still waiting in orbit, the two Edenian warships started organizing a boarding party. The ship was emitting some kind of anti-beaming interference, but they had quickly found a way to penetrate at least the external compartments of the ship from where the teams could spread inside. Half a dozen teams clad in the usual crysis looking suits appeared on as many locations as there was teams all around the ship. Quickly, the teams proceeded deeper inside, taking care of any opposition with relative easy. The Sanarians were first stunned when these aliens were even able to beam through their jamming field, but when they saw the nano-suited monsters storming through their ship with shields protecting them against anything they would throw at them, they for the first time felt real fear. These were not the usual aliens the Sanarian had gotten used to.

Tagging every surviving Sanarian, they were quickly beamed away while the various teams proceeded into important sections of the ship like the engine room and the bridge, quickly seizing control of the entire vessel. Interfacing with the various consoles, data quickly started pouring from the damaged ship to one of the larger Edenian warships through a dedicated subspace link. Whatever there was on the ship, the Edenians would take it and later analyze.

Having taken even the ship's schematics, there was no need to tow the ship anymore as it had been previously decided. Leaving the same way they came, the floating empty husk that was once a proud ship with hundreds of Sanarians on board was targeted by a type I Photon torpedo. The ship exploded on impact, leaving only pieces smaller than a fist floating around. In the meantime, the shuttle with the Recon Team had finally docked inside the Intrepid, and with both missions completed, the three ships quickly departed.

Unknown to anyone on those three ships, the aliens present in the system, on the planet and the station, remained in awe. Some unknown race had just beaten the crap out of the Sanarians, something unheard of until today. Talks quickly broke between many groups of aliens, discussing current events. There was fear among many, but there was also hope. Hope that the Sanarian terror could actually end one day. Many aliens asked the same two questions – Who are they, and how can we contact them?

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Babylon One  
Stardate: 2306.71**

Lorne and his band of misfits had been fighting the aliens who were stubbornly trying to get inside the Hangar level for quite some time now. The bad news was that the aliens somehow got their hands on some weapons and with the numbers also being in their favor, the situation didn't look too good. Lorne was more than certain the aliens sneaked some weapons piece by piece, so the scanning all visitors needed to go through wouldn't show up anything. Then, they would use the blind spots where security cameras and sensors didn't work to assemble them back into a working weapon.

Lorne's men had to retreat twice to prevent from being overrun. The aliens had for some reason intensified their efforts to breach the hangar, disregarding the many losses they were receiving as consequence. They were now fighting in the last corridor before the open area of the hangar bay where there wouldn't be any place they could bottleneck the aliens in order to somewhat even the odds. If they were unable to stop them here, they would certainly fail inside. As Lorne continued shooting at the aliens leaning behind a corner, he felt the sudden shaking of the station. Apparently the aliens had decided to stop waiting and attack even before their friends had managed to take control of the station. It was probably because they feared the viper had managed to call for help, a thought Lorne liked very much.

While Lorne was preparing to toss yet another grenade down the corridor, outside the space station the now eleven warships were firing at the station with everything they had at their disposal. From the moment the station went into lockdown, all 24 Naquadah reactor units had gone into overdrive, pumping as much power as they could into the shield matrix as well as charging the myriad of weapon's capacitors all around the station. As the warships approached the station, the many plasma cannons let loose a storm of deadly bolts at the incoming enemy ships, just before the large proton accelerator charged its deadly payload. Maybe the weapon wasn't the latest in weapons technology, but the sheer size and amount of energy it held, made it by far the deadliest weapon in the neighborhood.

Two bright beams raced around the saucer section, only to connect in one point on the opposite side releasing the proton stream straight at the enemy ship. The ship's shields flared with unseen brightness for the few seconds it took the beam to pierce through them, transferring all its energy to the ship's hull. Like a precision laser, of many meters in diameter, the beam sliced through the entire port side of the enemy ship, with secondary explosions adding to the devastation everywhere the deadly beam hit something critical. The other cannons were faring with less efficiency than the main beam weapon, but even on the side where the aliens were attacking, there was almost two dozen cannons ready to do their job. The enemy fighters didn't even try to get close since the shield was too strong for their small weapons and the scores of plasma batteries and railguns emplaced all around the station would make short work of the hundred plus craft.

"What's the status of our shields?" Woolsey asked one of the technicians in the room.

"Shields at 67%," the reply came back.

"Why are we not firing from our main weapon anymore?" Woolsey asked seeing that after the first shot, the weapon went silent.

"When the weapon is used at its peak strength, it takes more than two minutes to recharge the weapon's capacitors," the same technician replied. "Weapon will be charged in 47 seconds."

Woolsey watched as on the display showing the battle outside, a few sidebars appeared. The smart technician had added indicators for their shields status and weapons recharge rate on display so that he wouldn't constantly ask him for updates. While the counter was slowly crawling toward zero, the moment when the weapon would be ready to fire again, the left side showed the shield bar dropping slightly with every impact the shield would receive. It was a small drop, smaller than a percent each time, but there were a lot of weapons firing at the shield. Woolsey didn't know if the shield was able to survive longer than the enemy ships could. As he pondered about the unpleasant possibility of the shield depleting too soon, another of the enemy warships exploded, taking out a few of its nearby fighters with it He smiled, thinking that with every warship destroyed, the amount of firepower directed at them would also diminish. Still, the thing that made him smile even more was when he saw a hyperspace window spitting the Valhalla out, straight in the thick of the battle.

Without any warning this time, the Asgard vessel started firing from the many weapons it had. The heavy beams targeted the warships with the stronger shields while secondary ion guns peppered those with shields having already been strained by the station. If Woolsey didn't know if the station's shields would be enough before, now he was certain the tide had definitely turned in their favor, especially when the Valhalla's primary antiproton beam, racing through space, sliced another warship like it was made of butter.

As the Asgard vessel continued his relentless fire, not trying to destroy all the enemy ships, but rather trying to destroy their weapons in order to diminish the strain on the station as quickly as possible, the largest alien vessel, the only one of its type, began to move away. Soon, the ship opened a hyperspace window quickly leaving the scene. As two more alien ships were destroyed by the station's primary weapon and the Asgard ship in quick succession, the rest as well decided it was time to leave quickly. More hyperspace windows opened, only for the five remaining enemy ships to enter inside them.

With only fifty alien fighters still in the system, the station opened the hangar bay doors unleashing a swarm of vipers that quickly turned in hard pursuit of the small remaining force. It was time to clear the system, and the viper pilots were eager to achieve that goal.

The alien fighters were pushing away from the station in an attempt to gain some distance from the station as well as from the chasing vipers, but what the alien didn't know was how impossible that task was. From several light-seconds behind the alien fighters, all vipers suddenly opened a hyperspace window each, the next moment popping up on the left, right, above, below and behind the fleeing fighters. In a second the enemy was surrounded with no way of escape.

Quickly changing course, the vipers plummeted on the enemy fighters from all sides. Missiles flew from the vipers, each of them having its target to take care of. Explosions erupted in the midst of alien fighters quickly turning most of them into space dust. By making another pass, the vipers took care of the few stranglers that had somehow survived their first raid with their plasma repeaters, capable of destroying or severely crippling an enemy fighter with only a few shots.

Meantime, on the hangar level, Lorne's soldiers were still trying to fend off the enemy assault that had managed to push them inside the hangar where there was almost no cover to speak of. With the superior numbers on their side, the Terrans were clearly on the defensive. Crunched behind some crates, only sporadically leaning in order to take a few pot shots, Lorne thought how this was the end of his carrier as well as of his life. There was nowhere to run and there was no way they could win against so many of them. From the hundred strong force he had at his disposal when this clusterfuck first started, now he maybe had barely a few dozen soldiers left, still able to shoot back. Preparing to take another shot, the strange sound he quickly recognized as Asgard beaming made him stop. He leaned to his left in order to see what was going on and he saw the aliens disappearing in thin air one after the other. Realizing the shaking of the station had also stopped, he understood that help must have arrived. With a sigh of relief, Lorne slumped back behind the crate feeling incredibly tired. He also felt incredibly lucky.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Atlantis  
**_Stardate: 2307.61_

The small conference room was filled with the leaders of the Pegasus branch as well as with a very unhappy Jack.

"Who are these _grey_ aliens?" a very irritated Jack asked.

"We encountered them several months ago. They are the same aliens I've encountered in the alternate reality." John replied.

"I know that. I want to know where they came from and why they were allowed to get on the station without a thorough check beforehand," Jack said, looking straight at Sheppard.

"They didn't show any hostile intentions, so we let them join the other races on the station," Sheppard replied.

"No excuses Shepard. From this report we don't even know where their home planet is, or any other asset they might have in this galaxy. This is unacceptable," Jack replied, clearly pissed at this whole situation.

"I take full responsibility for what happened," Sheppard replied. He knew he had screwed up, especially since he had been the one who witnessed the hostile behavior of the aliens in the other reality.

"Damn straight you'll take the responsibility, and that is also why your next job will be to find them and take care of the problem. We really don't need another enemy right now. By the way, what the hell is the real name of these aliens? It's stupid to call them 'grey' aliens."

"She'shi'sh'kha…," John started speaking, but began coughing before he could finish.

"What?"

"That's their name," John replied the moment he stopped coughing.

"Ok. Grey alien it is."

Weir listened in silence, not liking how Jack was going at Sheppard for this. There was no way they could have known the aliens would do something like this, and if they hadn't allowed the aliens to join them on the station, then they would have had to do the same to other races too. "Jack, it wasn't his…"

"Ah-ah! We are talking now," Jack stopped Weir mid-sentence. He again turned back to face Sheppard. "Sheppard, I need this solved quickly. Is that understood?"

John straightened up before replying, "Perfectly sir. I'll get right on it."

Weir watched as John burst out of the room as if he was on fire. "Jack, why did you attack John in such a way? It's not his fault," Weir replied, not liking Jack's behavior.

"Doctor Weir, I'm getting enough headaches from the other galaxy. And this _is_ his fault, and he knows it," Jack replied back.

"Neither he, nor anyone else, could not have known what those aliens were planning to do. How can this be his fault?" Weir replied.

"That _is_ the problem, isn't it? Not knowing what other races are planning is precisely the reason why we check them out, so we know with who we are dealing with. How could no one here know from where the aliens came?"

"Because they said they wanted to join our community of races on the space station, but they wanted to keep the location of their homeworld secret; the same as many other races on the station," Weir explained. "Many are still in fear of the Wraith and they don't want their home planet's location to be widely known."

"So we could have problems from other races too?" Jack asked. This was getting better and better.

"Yes, I suppose we could, but what can we do?" Weir asked.

"You could change that particular policy, that's what."

"If we do that, many races will rather leave than tell us where their worlds are located."

"They can go screw themselves for all I care. If they don't like it, they can always leave."

"Jack, we are trying to build a community here based on trust," Weir retorted back.

Jack sighed. At least John understood, "I'm all for communities, trust and other… kumbayah crap, but NOT at the expense of our security."

'_Kumbayah crap?' _Weir thought. "You know as much as I do that the space station project, your idea I might add, is to prevent races in the Pegasus from starting new hostilities now that the Wraith are gone. We need to bring all races on board if we want to succeed. And we won't succeed if we start behaving all paranoid."

"First of all, it's not being paranoid if there's a real threat out there, and second, this conversation is pointless. The Council has already decided that all races that want to remain on the station, must give us all information pertinent to their location of all of their planets, basic information on their government, population and technological level, all to be checked out by sending someone on their planets."

Weir was stunned. This turnover was going to make many races reconsider their involvement. "Are you being serious?"

"Very serious," Jack replied.

Things were not going as Weir would like for them to go, but apparently the Council had made up their minds, "Fine! But do not come back to me complaining when the space station remains empty."

"Oh, somehow I think you don't have to worry about that. Rest assured that I won't complain."

With that, Jack quickly ended the meeting. There was no point in discussing this anymore and he had other things he needed to do back in the Milky Way galaxy.

Weir on the other hand, was disturbed by the way Jack had behaved. For as long as she knew him, she never saw him behave like that. She could even understand his reasons, but not his anger. Now, she also had the ungrateful task of having to inform Woolsey of the changes the Council had decided, knowing he would complain on how ludicrous this new disposition is.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**


	10. Revelations

**Author's note: Busy day tomorrow. Probably going to work all day so I decided to post this chapter a day earlier.**

**Senrab Nomis: **Well, the grey aliens had been depicted in the alternate reality, which means they should be in this reality too. Too small the difference for an entire race to not exist. In my story I made the beaming system capable of changing matter on a molecular level, not on an atomic level, which means for example iron cannot be turned into naquadah. The reason for this is obvious. I needed some kind of limitations what the tech the Terrans have can and cannot do. For changing or creating atoms the energy requirements are simply to great for anything larger than small device, like merlin's device for example and even if you created Naquadah through such process the energy you need is greater than what you'd get in a Naquadah reactor. If not you could create a reactor that creates Naquadah, which then gives you more energy, allowing you to create even more Naquadah and so forth. In short, you could then create a Perpetuum Mobile with more than 100% efficiency. Even our Sun does not have the ability to fuse atoms heavier than iron. All heavier elements can only be created in super nova events, at least that's what our science tells us. Solar power is great and free but it has one big limitation. For example a square meter on Earth is hit by 600 watts of solar radiation. No matter what tech you have at your disposal, you can't get more than that. Of course the radiation near a star is much greater, but still limited and far from the numbers we are talking about. The recharging of the Destiny in the show lasted for only minutes when it should have lasted munch, much longer if any useful amount of energy was to be taken; amount that allows the ship to cross entire galaxies.

**Stormwolf3710: **Thanks for reading.

**EvilTheLast: **This is the same question that could be asked for shows like DS9 and Babylon Five. Both didn't have more than a few armed guards which is ridiculous, but the reason why they did it and why I did it too is because if the Terrans do everything perfectly, there's not much to write about. It would make the story very dull. The alien came, found an overwhelming force waiting and all died instantly. The End. The Terrans must too make mistakes. The same happened when Jack stuck his head for the second time in the repository of knowledge. They knew how important it was and what did they send? Three SG teams. I would have sent an army to fend off whatever comes their way and not twelve people.

**Tamed Scoundrel: **I like your response and I too believe that such endevour should be based on trust, but as it usually happens, when you place trust and then you get stabbed in the back by those in which you put that trust, we humans tend to behave irrationally and overreact, which is the case here. Also I believe that maybe Earth wasn't the best choice to make your point. If you used countries instead of cities you would have the same problem. Most than often people who try to get for example a working visa to work in another country need to give a lot of information before they can get it. Also airports check and scan your luggage when you travel and you have to give all information they ask of you, like your passport with information who you are and from where you come from. There's also a deeper reason why Jack acted out of character. Keep reading. ;)

**Draco Volans: **Deeper reason why Jack is behaving this way. Keep reading. It will soon be revealed.

**Jackless: **Thanks. I hope I'll be able to deliver new chapters on schedule. We still have a long way to go before the end.

**Thanks to my beta and I hope you like this chapter too.**

* * *

**Furling Galaxy – Edenian New Home  
**_Stardate: 2330.66_

Inside the main conference room, Soren and the rest of the council were discussing what had transpired recently as well as what data the Intrepid had managed to collect. Soren had personally examined the data crystal that Laskar had given to the recon team. It was only logical, since he knew the Furling written language.

"What have you found out from the scrolls?" Nolan, the man in charge of the Space Fleet, asked.

"The scrolls contained Furling texts depicting the time they had spent in this galaxy. The important part, to us at least, is one scroll in which there is talk about their legacy. In the scroll, the Furling talk about having left something for one of their _'allies of old'_ to find. It says they have ensured that only those races could ever find and access their legacy."

"Does it say what their legacy is?"

"No it doesn't, but it talks about two separate pieces that you need. One in order to find it and one to use it. The scroll says that in order to find the legacy someone must have the beacon that shows the path. It also says the beacon is located somewhere in one of the… _guardians circling their long lost home_ and that it has been entrusted to someone for safekeeping."

"Long lost home?"

Soren sighed, "Yes, I believe it means the beacon is back in the Milky Way galaxy, or better yet near it."

"Near it?" Nolan asked.

"My first thought was that the beacon was on one of the moons circling their home planet since the Furling used to call moons guardians in their old texts, but after having researched about their home planet a little more I found out the planet has only one moon, and the scroll explicitly says the beacon is in _one of the guardians_, which means there should be more than one."

"Then, if it is not the moon, then where?"

"After I've done more research, I found out that the Furling referred to any celestial body circling another as guardians, not just moons."

"Which means they are referring to one of the planets in their home system?"

"Possible, but I think that's not it. First of all, they wrote one of the guardians circling their long lost home, and no planet ever circles another planet. Second, I found that the Furling often referred to the Milky Way as their home too."

"Meaning?"

"It means that, if they refer to the Milky Way galaxy as their long lost home, then a guardian is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way galaxy."

"Crap!"

"Exactly my thought. There are dozens of them."

"Wait, maybe there is something else that can help us here."

"What?"

"The scroll says that they gave the beacon to someone for safekeeping, which means we don't have to search every planet in every satellite galaxy, but rather find whoever they've given the beacon to. This is something we can find much quicker," Nolan explained.

"Good idea. Satellite galaxies are relatively small, which means with fewer races in them. When the Alterrans were in the Milky Way galaxy, there was not even one race in any of the satellite galaxies."

"What about the second piece we need in order to use the legacy?"

"There is not much about that I'm afraid. The only thing it says is that the key doesn't exist."

"Meaning?"

"Beats me. I was stunned when I read it the same as you are right now. I first thought I was reading it wrong, but there was only one sentence, and you can't make a lot of mistakes translating one sentence."

"That doesn't make any sense. If the key doesn't exist, we can't open or use their legacy, whatever the legacy is."

Soren sighed, "Let's solve one problem at a time and see where it leads us. We need the beacon to find the legacy, this is now our priority. Any suggestions how can we do that?"

"We send a ship back home?"

"I don't like that option. First of all, a ship doesn't have a stardrive like the city-ship, which means it would take the ship a lot of time to cross the forty million light years to reach the anomaly even if the hyperdrive doesn't give out, and we don't have that much time just to send a message."

"Then what? We pack our bags and use the city?"

"That was never an option. Next suggestion? Anyone?"

After a pause, Nolan answered, "The stargate."

"We are too far out to make a connection to home."

"We are too far out to make a stable connection that can make people go through, but to send a data burst of a few micro seconds, even a failed connection will connect for that long."

"Interesting, maybe you have something there. The gate connects with another for a short period even when there is not enough power to create a stable event horizon. It's the gate's protocol to ask the other gate to pump additional energy into the wormhole if the calling gate doesn't have enough juice."

"Exactly. The few microseconds are barely registered, and even if the gate home can't supply the necessary power we need, we can piggyback a compressed signal that will reach home if we time it correctly."

"Still, it will take a lot of power from our three ZPMs, even for that small stunt. Let's make the calculations right the first time. I don't want to deplete the only power source we have that can bring us back home."

The room quickly cleared with all members knowing what their next job was. They needed to somehow contact home.

Two days later, the gate opened a connection to Eden Prime for exactly 1.43 microseconds, just enough for the compressed data to go through.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – New Tollana  
**_Stardate: 2331.40_

The city's infrastructure was already taking shape and Jack noticed that fact with approval from the moment he had stepped through the stargate. Moving through the large courtyard where the gate had been placed, Jack marveled at the Tollan clean architectural style he very much liked, thinking how, after all, it was a good thing that such civilization didn't perish. No matter what Travell had done, or had tried to do, he understood the impulse of protecting your own race, sometimes even going where you thought you would never go to achieve that goal.

Jack was also very pleased to see the Tollans were not the same arrogant race he had first met and that believed no one and nothing could ever harm them. They must have finally realized that, no matter how advanced you are, if you don't make progress, someone, sooner or later, will inevitably surpass you. Isn't stagnation after all the death of a civilization?

Noticing Narim entering the large building past the two guards in front of it, Jack understood it was time for him to move inside where the meeting was about to start. They needed to discuss a few points in their latest agreement, and since in good part it was about providing defenses to the Tollans, Jack was the one who had to participate to these meetings.

Inside the conference room, Jack spotted Narim and Travell waiting. There were a few others, but he couldn't remember having ever seen them before.

"Councilor O'Neill, glad you could make it," Narim said the moment he spotted him.

"Thank you Narim, nice to see you too," Jack replied while taking his place around the only table in the center, looking around and pondering about how these people could not know what chairs are. There weren't any.

"If there is no objection, I would like to start immediately," Narim said. After seeing O'Neill nodding, he continued, "Councilor O'Neill, we are very grateful for your help in restoring our civilization, at least what's left of it."

"No need. We were more than happy to help you build your new city."

"Thank you. There is something else we would like to ask of you, if it is not too much trouble. Even though we are planning to greatly improve our ion cannons, so that we can properly defend our new home, we fear the process will take considerable time, too much to leave the planet so vulnerable. We would like to ask if you can loan us your ground cannons until we manage to build our own. We promise not to look at the technology the cannons hold without your explicit consent."

Jack smiled, "I have already anticipated your request and the Council agrees to loan you twenty four ground cannons. We believe it will be more than enough to protect your planet, but there is something that we would like in return."

"And what would that be?" an irritated Travell asked.

"Your phase shifting technology," Jack replied, unfazed by Travell's tone of voice.

"Phase shifting technology is one of our greatest discoveries. We can't give it up so lightly," Travell replied.

"We know that and we are prepared to give you our latest in interstellar hyperdrive technology as additional compensation," Jack added to the pot to sweeten the deal.

"When you say interstellar you mean you're not giving us the intergalactic version. Am I correct in that assumption?" Narim added.

"You are correct in assuming that."

"We would be more interested in your intergalactic hyperdrives," Travell said.

"They are not ours to give. The technology is of the Asgard, and while they have gifted us with it, we are bound by the Second Great Alliance rules that, among other things, forbid us sharing of that particular technology. For that, you'll have to ask the true owners," Jack said knowing full well the Asgard would never give them one of their most prized achievements. It had taken Earth saving the Asgard from the replicators to get that, and the little fact that they had tried to use their phase shifting technology against Earth didn't sit well with the Asgard. They so far hadn't spoken a word with the Tollans, even after several attempts had been made by them in that regard. "Look, our interstellar hyperdrives are far more advanced than what you have. It will allow you to go anywhere in this galaxy and with your power generation capabilities you'll probably have the fastest ships in the neighborhood after ours… and the Nox… and the Guardians… uh yeah and the Asgard of course. So, if you don't have any wishes to explore other galaxies, this technology will serve you well. What do you say?"

"Why do you need our phase shifting technology?" Travell still wasn't convinced.

"To tell you the truth, I want it because it scares the living sh… trousers out of me. Our first priority will be to find a way to counter that technology. Making irises or shields that can block whatever or whoever uses phase shifting from passing through, is something we must have in order to make our gates safe," Jack said, clueless why 'trousers'.

"Why do you need such technology? We are not going to share that technology with anyone else, so there will be no one who can threaten you with it," Travell said.

Jack sighed inwardly, thinking how once again the Tollans, or at least Travell, was reverting to what Jack called retarded thinking, "You are not taking into account that some other race can come up with such technology on their own. We all know who the Ori are and what kind of knowledge they possess. Is it so inconceivable that they might develop something similar?"

After hearing this last part, the Tollans looked at each other and Jack knew from their expression he had just given them a scenario they never thought could happen. In their own idea of being a far superior race, they always thought no one else could ever achieve what they had, but that was far from being the truth.

Making small nods, quickly the Tollans agreed, "We agree, but I would like something else in return, as well as what you have already promised."

'_They just want more, don't they?' _Jack thought. "What?"

"If you find a countermeasure for the phase shifting technology, you'll provide us with the theory as well as a prototype. If it's true that other races might come up with such technology, we want to have a way to protect ourselves as well," Travell said.

"Agreed, but maybe then we could work together on this project? You send a few scientists to work with ours and this way we get results faster."

Agreeing to the terms, the conversation quickly ended. The Tollans were getting their defenses, ships would be built with the new hyperdrives and probably with a new version of their ion cannons, and the joint work on the phase shifting technology will give much faster results. This was most certainly a day to remember. It was the first time the Terrans and the Tollans had found some common ground.

* * *

**Milky Way – Lucian Meeting  
**_Stardate: 2332.72_

Odai was pacing up and down in the large conference room while occasionally looking at the empty chair that was usually filled by Salas, one of his captains. The man was an idiot, Odai knew that, but he didn't think he would turn out to be that much of an idiot. From the very beginning of the war with the Jaffa, Odai had instructed his captains to spend most, if not all, of their time aboard their ships. There were two reasons for that. The first was that, in case of an attack, the ship could quickly jump into hyperspace if needed, and the second was that even if the ship didn't have the time to split, there was a great chance the captain would perish with the ship. Instead, the idiot Salas had decided to spend most of his time on base on the planet's surface, the perfect way for getting captured.

The Lucian Alliance wasn't a nation with millions or billions of people. They didn't have the resources of an entire race at their disposal, or an army of soldiers trained and ready to fight. But all this wasn't such a negative side when you took into account the level of secrecy the Lucian Alliance operated under. Nobody knew where their leaders were or where they kept their most valued assets. Only the captains and a few of their most loyal subordinates had been apprised of that fact, and captains usually spent most of their time on board their ships in deep space, far from any planet. This way, it was incredibly difficult to hurt them since nobody knew where they were or how to find their shipyards or other manufacturing facilities.

All this ended the moment Salas had been captured. If only he had remained on his ship, at least he would now be dead. Odai sighed. What a nice wish. He knew Salas would remain strong, not giving any information to the Jaffa. That was, for the first _five minutes_ until they brought the pain stick into play. Then Salas would start singing like a canary, from the very first moment he would see the energy discharge of the pain stick in front of his eyes. He would then probably tell them his entire life story, ending with the location of every fucking planet where they had something of value placed there.

Odai stopped his pacing around the room, feeling his heartbeat skyrocketing. If he didn't calm down, he wouldn't need to worry about the Jaffa for much longer. He would get a heart attack right here right now. "Ideas people! I want ideas! How do we solve this problem?"

Odai waited, looked around the table and then waited a little more. Nobody was saying anything. He was already prepared to yell at them for their uselessness when he got a reply.

"We need to relocate what we can, and defend what we cannot," Lucius said calmly.

"We do not have the same number of ships as the FJN has, and our ships are not even close to being a match to theirs. And as far as relocation goes, we can't relocate entire shipyards overnight," Odai replied.

"That is true, and I do believe we will incur losses, but doing nothing would be even worse. We know how the Jaffa think and we know Salas is going to give them everything he knows. That means we know exactly what their first target is going to be," Lucius replied.

Odai thought for a moment, understanding where Lucius was going with this, "They will target our most valued asset first, which means we can bring most of our fleet there and wait in ambush."

"This is precisely my point, but this is not all. Even with our entire fleet waiting in ambush we cannot be certain of winning or that we won't lose too many ships in the battle."

"Then, what else can we do?"

"I have come recently in possession of a very important piece of technology, the designs for a cloaked mine."

"That could work, if we manage to lure them into a minefield, but do we have the time to build them?"

"No, but I have been building them already for the past several months."

Odai was feeling a strange mix of emotions. On one hand, he admired Lucius for his initiative, obviously having predicted the need to defend their asset against an overwhelming force. On the other hand, he was already feeling the dagger stabbing him in his back, something sooner or later Lucius would most certainly do, "How many?"

"Several thousands, fifty megatons each."

Odai's eyes widened in shock. So many mines and with such a yield could easily take out a fleet of Ha'taks. If several could detonate on a single ship, its shields would most certainly be overloaded, and even if not what remained would be easily overpowered by their fleet. "With so many mines we have a chance of winning, but we still don't have any guarantee the Jaffa will attack our shipyards on our main planet."

"There is never certainty, only a certain probability of an event to occur. And the probability of the Jaffa attacking our biggest asset is very high."

'_Okaaay, now I'm more than certain this man isn't human,' _Odai thought. Indeed, Odai had the clear impression there was something… off about this guy, but he couldn't quite fathom what it was. "So, in short, you're going with your guts on this one?"

Lucius remained silent for a long time, "I am."

The conversation continued with Odai, from time to time, looking at the incompetent rest of the people in the room, with the only job of stealing their air and nothing more. Odai was still troubled by what Lucius had showed here today, but he had to admit, without him and the months he had spent making those mines, he was more than certain they wouldn't stand a chance of winning a direct confrontation against the Jaffa. Now, there was at least hope where previously there had been none, but again the sensation that something was wrong with the man and the constant feeling of a knife coming through his back didn't leave him a sense of peace. He would have to watch Lucius very closely if he wanted to stay alive.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Wraith Secret HQ  
**_Stardate: 2336.24_

The lonely Wraith commander moved quickly through the maze-like corridors of the secret base. He was in a hurry. Passing a few more intersections, the wraith reached one set of double doors. Opening them and entering inside, he found the room empty except for one person sitting in the throne-chair on the opposite side. He instinctively felt frightened while approaching her. Her telepathic influence was so strong that he could easily lose his individuality just by standing near her. She also didn't look like the usual queen. Her much paler skin was clear indication that she wasn't like the other queens and no matter how much the Wraith commander was happy his matriarch had rejoined the Wraith, he also felt fear at being here. He knew how volatile she could be.

After the last battle the Wraith had lost, while trying to attack the planet with the human refugees, the remaining queens had instructed him to revive their matriarch from her ten thousand years long sleep. The _Lantean-turned-Wraith_ queen, the one that was instrumental in creating the Wraith race was feared by all and the other queens had decided to revive her only because they saw no other choice. The other queens knew how the matriarch would be displeased to hear how things had turned out during her long sleep and they also knew there would be those who would lose their heads because of it. It was that the main reason why the other queens had decided to send the Wraith commander instead of going in person.

Thankfully though, the commander had been able to show the matriarch that he was worthy of serving her for at least a little while longer. He also hadn't liked to be recalled back by the other queens, but since he was the only one who had been alive at the time when the queen had been awake, he had been the one to be chosen for the task. Probably the queens also hoped the matriarch would kill the proverbial messenger the moment he explained to her the reasons why she'd been awakened, something he was glad it hadn't happened.

"My Queen, I have news," Todd said while kneeling on the floor in front of her.

"What news?" the queen said.

"The Terrans have found our research base. The base self-destructed to prevent the Terrans from learning its purpose."

"Did we lose the research being done on the base?"

"No my Queen. The backup system I have created prevented any loss."

"And you feel proud of that fact?"

This was a tricky question. He was being tested, _again_, "Yes, my Queen."

The queen smiled, "Good my child, you _should_ feel proud. In the last ten thousand years apparently you are the only one who has changed the way the Wraith operates. Without change, we are bound to perish, don't ever forget that," the queen said. She'd been so pissed at the other queens when she heard that in the ten thousand years long sleep they had done nothing to improve their situation that she wanted to kill them all with her bare hands. Their cowardly act of sending a commander to revive her and to tell her what had happened had just been the straw that made her kill half of them the moment they showed their ugly faces. He then told the other queens they would follow shortly after with the same faith if she didn't see results quickly.

"Thank you my Queen. I will remember," Todd replied.

"How is the research proceeding?"

"Very well my Queen. Most research projects are completed. We now have developed better power generation for our ships and the newly developed armor will easily allow us to travel across the entire galaxy without having to exit hyperspace even once."

"To what projects did you reallocate the scientists that had finished their work?"

Again, it was another test, "I didn't my Queen. They are continuing their research for the next generation of power generators and hull armor."

"Good my child," The queen said, smiling again. She found comfort in the fact that not all of her subjects were complete morons.

"The human cloning project is also nearing its final stage. Soon, we will be able to clone human bodies with a hundred percent success rate."

"Tell me my child, how do the clones taste?"

Todd made a sour expression, "They taste… they will keep us alive my Queen."

"I see," the queen said. She knew they would taste horrible and even worse they would need to consume more clones than they would usually have to consume humans in order to survive. The strange ability of the Wraith to be able to consume the life force, or core energy, of living humans was still a mystery even to her, but she knew enough to know that a clone is simply an empty shell and that it takes time to replace its core energy, years even. Also a consciousness was very important in the process, and a newly made clone had a young consciousness not yet developed enough to speed up the process of replenishing the core energy. The core energy depended on physical attributes as much as mental ones. Knowing that the clones would never be enough, but just to help them survive in this situation that the previous Wraith leadership put them into, the queen knew they needed to find another feeding ground. Ten thousand years ago, she'd never even thought of trying to reach the Milky Way galaxy because the Pegasus had more humans in it, but now it appeared the Milky Way was a much tastier place to live in and the enemy here wasn't any less strong than it was there.

The queen liked Todd, but she also had a few things on her mind she didn't really understand, "Tell me again my child, why have you befriended the Terrans?"

Again Todd felt he was being tested, "My Queen, the reason why I have befriended them was to learn from them. At the time, the Wraith were split in several factions, battling each other for supremacy and we were losing ground against them with each passing day. I wanted to find a weakness to exploit."

"And did you find such weakness?"

"At the time, I didn't my Queen."

"At the time? Does it mean you have now?"

"Maybe not a weakness, but an opportunity for certain."

"Explain."

"When the Terrans first came to this galaxy, I believed we had just found a new source of food, just like the other queens did. But that misguided confidence, believing they do not pose any real threat to us lasted only for a brief moment, only until I was able to understand the real truth."

"And what was the real truth my child?"

"The truth was that, while the Terrans were growing in strength, we were fighting among ourselves and becoming weaker. I also understood that, no matter how successful we were against the Terrans, we had one fatal restriction working against us."

"What restriction?"

"We could not attack them where their home planet is. Even if we were able to destroy Atlantis, the Terrans were growing in their own galaxy and it would only have delayed the inevitable."

The queen understood, "Without the ability to strike back at the heart of the enemy, they could safely grow in strength, waiting, maybe even for years, while we starve. Then, once ready, they could strike at us with overwhelming force."

"Yes my Queen. Without the ability to travel to their home galaxy we could never win this war, only lose it."

"And now we have the ability to reach them and yet you said this was a mere opportunity. Why?"

"My Queen, the greatest flaw of our people has been to underestimate the Terrans. I will not do such a mistake. The Terrans are strong and they have strong allies ready to help them. Even with the ability to reach them in their own galaxy, I do not believe a frontal assault is advisable."

"You fear them."

"I do my Queen. They are not like the Lanteans. They have spent millennia fighting among themselves, something that has honed their skills in the art of war to levels we do not understand. Even with numerical superiority, whoever faced them in battle has lost more times than won. They can quickly adapt to any change in tactics by drawing from their long experience in order to find the best counter-strategy. If we add the fact that they now have technology beyond even what the Lanteans possessed, I have no other choice but to caution against a direct engagement with them."

The queen didn't like what she'd just heard, but she understood. Even with the Lanteans the war hadn't been an easy one and only the Lantean arrogance and even more their inexperience had allowed the Wraith to eventually win the war. Rage filled the matriarch, thinking how in these ten thousand years, instead of progressing the Wraith had stagnated, complacent of what they had achieved after the victory over the Lanteans. "You are showing wisdom my child, something apparently very rare among our kind."

"Thank you my Queen."

"Don't thank me. It means you'll be the one who will have to find a way to fight the Terrans and their allies once we reach their galaxy. And you know I don't like failures."

Todd knew exactly what that meant. She was giving him carte blanche to do whatever he thought necessary in order to win, but it also meant that if he failed, his punishment would be a quick death, or maybe not that quick, "Of course my Queen."

"When will we be ready to leave this wretched galaxy?"

"Not long my Queen. We are already upgrading our ships in order to survive the long journey," Todd said, purposely omitting any deadline. If he told her exactly how much it would take and there was a delay, his death could come prematurely, the same as if he told her a period she wouldn't have liked.

"Good, keep me informed. Oh, and you have three weeks to complete the upgrades."

'_Shit!' _Todd thought, forgetting that the matriarch's telepathic powers were so strong that she would have easily been able to pick up on such a strong thought. The smile on her face confirmed that fact very quickly.

"Yes my Queen," said Todd before leaving the room.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Dakara  
**_Stardate: 2337.21_

Rak'nor entered the council's chamber where the twelve council members awaited his arrival. There was much to be discussed, mostly because they finally had some real information on the Lucian assets spread around the galaxy. Rak'nor only hoped the council would quickly decide to use the knowledge he had retrieved from the prisoners to act swiftly.

"Rak'nor, were you able to gain any useful information from the prisoners?" Teal'c asked the moment Rak'nor approached the large stone table surrounded by the council members.

"I believe the prisoners have told us everything they knew and the information will be of great use to us," Rak'nor replied.

"What have you learned?" Bra'tac was the first to ask.

"The location of several worlds with Lucian assets on them. Planets with shipyards and other manufacturing facilities as well as other used for stashing the harvested Kassa."

"This is good news. How would you recommend we proceed?" Teal'c asked.

Rak'nor was glad Teal'c asked him how would be best to use the knowledge as he had already spent a lot of time preparing for that question, "I believe our best course of action is to attack multiple targets at once as soon as possible. This way, there will be no chance for the Lucians to prepare for our attack."

"Do you not believe that it would be best to attack their biggest target and then move to the next with whatever force we are able to gather?" Bra'tac asked.

"No, I do not," Rak'nor said before explaining. "We have a larger fleet than what the Lucians have and we can choose which planets to attack first. I believe the Lucians will soon notice, if they have not already, that one of their captains is missing, and their only play is to send the majority of their fleet to protect their most valued assets, and that is the planet with most of their shipyards. We should target other planets first with smaller units."

"Why not attack their shipyards first? If we manage to destroy their shipyards, victory would be assured. If not immediately, then in time for certain," another council member asked.

"Because that option remains available no matter how long we wait. They cannot move their shipyards as opposed to other assets. From the time I have spent with the Ta'uri learning their tactics, I learned one very important thing, the thing that allowed the Tau'ri to win in most engagements the Jaffa had with them in the past."

"And what would that be Rak'nor?" Teal'c said really wanting to hear what he had learned.

"That in war you always need to outmaneuver your opponent, never doing what your opponent thinks you are planning to do."

Teal'c smiled. It was true. The Jaffa had lost battle after battle mostly because they were predictable. In their long past, they had always attacked the most prominent target first, something that had allowed whoever was on the other side to prepare. "I agree with Rak'nor. The Lucians will most definitely think we will attack their main planet and they will wait for us there."

"But if we gather a large fleet, even with the Lucians waiting for us, they cannot hope to win."

"As I said, that option remains available to us. They cannot move their shipyards," Rak'nor interjected.

"Do you have a plan ready?" Bra'tac asked.

"I do. We send a single battle group to each Lucian planet. If their fleet is larger than ours or if the commander believes he would incur heavy losses, we withdraw from the engagement."

"Withdraw?" one of the Council members didn't like how this had sounded.

"Yes, we withdraw and await the other battle groups to finish those planets where we won't have a large opponent to fight. Once the battle groups are reunited, we continue attacking better defended planets, going this way until we end on their main planet. This way, we will have fewer losses than the Lucians right until the final battle where we will end this war and the Lucian Alliance once and for all."

Several council members didn't like the idea and their expression showed that fact very clearly. On the other hand, Teal'c immediately saw the advantage this way of thinking presented. And his time with the Tau'ri where he'd learned their tactics had taught him that, sometimes, blindly focusing on the big victories alone wasn't the best strategy to win the war. And the war was what they wanted to win above all. Still, he knew he would have to spend a lot of time persuading several members of the council on the validity of Rak'nor's plan, "Thank you Rak'nor. We will take your recommendation under advisement. You may leave now."

Rak'nor knew it was time to leave and let the council decide what the best course of action was, but he had learned something else from the Lucian captain he thought could be important to mention, "Council members, before I leave, I should inform you of something else the Lucian captain said under interrogation that I believe to be of great importance."

"What did he say?" Bra'tac.

"He said that the first attack with the symbiote poison was not their doing."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow, looking quizzically at Rak'nor. "Explain."

"He said that, to them, we were the one who started this war by attacking one of their warehouses, the retaliatory mission I first performed. He also said that their leader, Odai, did not want to go to war even after that attack, and that he rather wanted to contact the Tau'ri and find a peaceful solution to what he believed was a simple incident not worth their trouble since the warehouse was not of much value to them."

"If that is true, why has he not done so?" another council member stepped in.

"He said that, while Odai was checking the facts, another captain named Leto forced his hand by attacking one of our planets with a Naquadah bomb, an event we are all aware. He also said that when Odai found out what Leto did, he executed him on the spot."

"Lies! They are losing the war and they are spreading lies, nothing more," another council member said in anger.

Teal'c watched Rak'nor as his face was clearly showing he wasn't of the same opinion, "You do not believe this to be the case?"

"I do not. From the moment I executed the assault on the warehouse, I have had the feeling of something being wrong. The prisoners who spread the To'kra poison on one of our planets told us there would be a Lucian base there, but what we found was nothing of the sort. It was a simple warehouse of no value and the Lucians we caught there told us the same. They did not know of any attack on our planets. At the time, I did not think much of what they told me, but now that this captain is telling the same story, I am not certain anymore."

"I told you. He is spreading lies to confuse us," the same council member replied his previous statement.

"It is possible, but why would a Lucian captain lie about this after he told us everything else we wanted to know. He gave us all locations where the Lucians have their asset and he told us everything he knew about their leadership and their leader Odai. Why would he lie about this? Also, his story is not something you can fabricate quickly while you are being tortured."

Teal'c was pensive. He also couldn't understand what reason the Lucian captain would have to spread such a story while he was also giving them everything else. The even bigger problem was, would this revelation change anything even if it was true. The war had gone for far too long, with many losses, and even if there was somebody else who had orchestrated the attack, it was far too late to stop the war. Too many Jaffa had died already to stop now. Only when the Lucians are no more, then the Jaffa will be satisfied. "Where are the three Lucians that orchestrated the attack on our planet with the symbiote poison?"

"They were executed immediately after interrogation. They confessed and there was no doubt about their guilt," Rak'nor replied.

"There is doubt now and even though that does not change anything in the war against the Lucians, I want to know if someone else is responsible for so many deaths."

"But why would the perpetrators lie about who sent them? They knew they were going to die, so why lie?" another council member asked.

"Maybe they did not know they were lying. In the past, I myself have been brainwashed by Apophis, and no one was able to persuade me he was not my master anymore. I was prepared to betray my friends with whom I have spent years fighting the same Goa'uld I worshipped once again."

"You believe those who attacked our planet were brainwashed into believing they were working for the Lucians? We have indication that those people indeed were members of the Lucian Alliance," Bra'tac asked.

"Maybe they were working for the Lucians all along. Somebody could have simply brainwashed them into believing the orders came from their leader while they have instead been given by a third party. Somebody who can benefit from a war between us and the Lucian Alliance perhaps," Teal'c said, thinking how maybe executing people wasn't such a good idea after all. If they had put them in prison instead, they would now have the ability to check if there is any sign of brainwashing at play. But as it stands, they now have no way to check the validity of the Lucian captain's claim.

"It does not matter. We will discuss the strategy we will use to attack the Lucians first, regardless of this claim. We will then ask the rest of the Lucians if there is any truth to this story, once we capture them of course," Bra'tac said. "Rak'nor, thank you for the information you gave us. Now you can leave."

Rak'nor bowed slightly in respect, leaving the chamber the next moment. Outside the chamber he waited patiently to see what the council would decide. He could hear them argue, mostly between Teal'c and other council members who thought a direct assault at the Lucian shipyards was a much better idea than the slower option of attacking smaller targets first. Eventually, Teal'c exited the chamber informing him he had been authorized to plan the attack as he saw fit.

Rak'nor bowed at Teal'c, grateful for the confidence he had given him. It was time to go and teach the Lucians a lesson and he was fully committed to end this war as soon as possible. Rak'nor turned and went back to his ship in order to start planning the raids for the many planets they were about to hit first.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Odyssey  
**_Stardate: 2338.32_

Ronson was smiling. After the upgrade that had lasted almost three weeks, he was finally on his way to one of the many satellite galaxies around the Milky Way Galaxy. The one he was going to visit was mere 0.256 million light years away, something his ship could cross in matter of days at a leisure pace. It would be just enough time, he thought, to thoroughly test all the new systems that had been installed. The ship had received the new plasma beam weapons, four of them to be more exact, thought Ronson with a big smile forming on his face, the latest in shielding, a very nice micro-ZPM to boost their power generation if needed, internal security forcefields, upgraded reactors to the 4th Generation of N/N mixed reactor's rods, as well as a myriad of other smaller changes.

All this was great and he really liked the idea of being the captain of a beast in its own right, but other things were even more important to him than these. The ship now had several protein resequencers and one industrial matter converter, allowing the ship to go on for almost indefinitely without the constant need for resupplying. Before the upgrade the ship could maybe stay without resupplying for three months tops, but now the ship could go on indefinitely as long as it didn't sustain some serious damage only a shipyard could repair or spent all of the fuel in the form of Naquadah/Naquadria rods or other raw materials. Again this was great, but what he liked the most were the new consoles all around the ship, not looking so retro anymore like they used too. Now, you could probably run the entire ship from one console with its holographic display on it. Actually you could now run the ship even without any console if needed be by just speaking to the ship, and sometimes the ship would even reply kindly to your inquiry. Ronson had the slight feeling his crew was slightly annoyed by him constantly asking questions to the onboard computer instead of asking them, but he liked it so much that he couldn't help himself. Of course the onboard computer was capable of understanding voice inputs and reply to them, but it was far from being an advanced AI system like those installed on Borealis, or in the future on other capital ships like the SC-310 Super Carrier or the DN-306 Hercules Dreadnought Class ships, but he actually liked this more than having a hologram floating around.

The ship also got an LPS, as in Legacy Protection System, with the simple task of protecting any sensitive system on board the ship from being inspected, accessed without authorization or reverse engineered. The Terrans, in collaboration with the Asgard and Guardians, had decided that too many systems on their ships had very dangerous technologies and knowledge on board to leave them easily accessible. The thought of such tech falling into the hands of the Lucian Alliance was shuddering at the least.

The LPS was a monitoring system that constantly checked the ship for any sign of intrusion. It was also impossible to change the chain of command on the ship without a trip to one of the Terran shipyards since the process involved the insertion of a coded crystal into the computer's core with the imprint of all the upper personnel of the ship on it, preventing any reprogramming in flight. It was hardware and not software. The LPS would, if it found an intrusion on the ship, first lock sensitive areas as well as computer access from outside consoles, allowing only the people imprinted on the crystal full access. If the threat persisted, the system would lock more and more systems on the ship, eventually going to such length as to completely erase sensitive data or to destroy entire systems rather than letting them fall into the wrong hands. The LPS would go so far as to burn half the ship leaving only the support system and the backup generators still working in case the ship was taken over completely. The thing that surprised Ronson the most was that he was confident the Asgard coding would work properly and that accidents where the system would go berserk would not happen. Actually he was glad the Asgard took the job of programming the LPS instead of the Terrans as he still to this day hadn't ever witnessed one Terran programmer not making a ton of bugs.

Ronson's thinking was suddenly interrupted by one of his crew, "Sir, we have a priority comm. channel from HQ."

Ronson thought about what could possibly be the reason for HQ to contact him so early on his mission. He came up empty, "Put it on display."

The crewman did as he was told, and the frontal display showing hyperspace switched to the image of Jack O'Neill. Being contacted by Jack meant trouble, he knew it in his guts, "What is it Councilor?"

"Colonel, half an hour ago we received a message through the stargate from P4M-328, stating that their planet was under attack by unknown forces."

Ronson thought about the planet's designation, remembering the day he had to push the Odyssey to her limits in order to reach the planet where SG-1 and Daniel had been captured after stumbling into a museum for mistake. He remembered the face of their Councilor once he had been beamed to the bridge, just before dropping to the floor unconscious like a sack of potatoes, "Do we know who attacked them or with what kind of forces?"

"No, the connection lasted for only a few seconds, but we can make a few guesses."

It was true. There weren't many races that could do something like that. In fact, as far as Ronson was concerned, it could only be the Lucians or the Ori, the latter not such an appealing proposition, "The Lucians or the Ori."

"Exactly. Colonel, you are ordered to change course in order to reach the planet in question so that we can get some answers, but you're not to engage the enemy. We just need eyes for now. Is that understood?"

"Perfectly sir."

"Good. Good luck to you all and report as soon as you have something," Jack said severing the connection.

Ronson sighed. It appeared as if the weapons and shields would be the first to be tested on his newly upgraded ship, "You heard the man. Change course immediately. Best speed."

The ship lurched slightly while changing course, "Course changed sir. ETA, ten minutes."

Ronson nodded more to himself than to anyone else. He was already thinking what he would do once he reached the planet. He instructed the helm to drop out of hyperspace at least five light-minutes from the planet. He didn't want to get in the middle of several Lucian Ha'taks or much less Ori toilets.

In the ten minutes it took to reach their target the crew worked diligently, checking every system on the ship, charging the shield generators to their maximal 650 terawatt-hours, as well as preparing all offensive capabilities the ship had at its disposal. The ten minutes looked to last much longer, but eventually the waiting part ended with the ship spitting out of the newly formed hyperspace window.

Ronson didn't care if somebody knew they were here, especially if the Ori were involved since he was more than certain they were more than capable of detecting their approach, "Active sensors, full resolution."

The crewman manning the sensors complied with the order. It took a few seconds before his face turned into one of puzzlement, "Nothing on sensors sir."

Ronson also had a confused expression, not having excepted such answer from his crewman. There was of course the possibility there were cloaked ships in the system, but the last sensor upgrade of an already incredibly advanced sensor system, meant that only advanced cloaking systems like those of the Alterrans or the Asgard could prove to be a challenge, and since he knew the Ori didn't use cloaking systems, he really didn't know what to believe. _Was this some kind of prank?_

"Set course for the planet, slowly. And keep scanning."

Unnoticed by the crew, the ship slowly accelerated under the tremendous force of the four ion engines towards their target. As time passed by, the sensors kept giving no sign of ships or anything that could be construed as a threat. After almost an hour, the ship reached the planet, slowly pushing towards geosynchronous orbit. It was then that things turned for the worst.

The sensors started blaring as a massive energy beam rose from the planet's surface hitting the ship in full, only to be followed the next second by another one hitting the ship once more. The pilot, without waiting for the captain to say anything or bothering to look at the sparks flying all over the bridge, pushed the _pedal_ to military thrust immediately starting a complex series of evasive patterns in order to throw off the enemy's aim. Coincidentally, the ship had detected the almost instantaneous drop in shield strength to less than forty percent, automatically opening the dam holding the energy stored inside the micro-ZPM to its maximum aperture, allowing petawatts of raw power to be pumped into the shield generators. A third beam missed the lurching ship by only a few hundred meters, but the fourth beam didn't. The impact caused a console in the back of the bridge to explode, tossing the unfortunate crewman standing in front of it into the air.

Since enough was enough, and since the shields showed less than ten percent strength, the captain yelled to the pilot to perform a blind jump. It meant no navigational data would be inputted nor the speed would be determined before entering hyperspace. The pilot pushed the button and the ship sped into the newly formed hyperspace window.

"Status!" the Captain yelled while looking at the injured crewman behind him. He didn't look well, or moving for that matter.

"Several secondary systems are offline. The last beam bled through our shields causing considerable damage to the hull. We have decompression on deck three and seven. The area has been sealed off with internal force-fields There are reports of few people injured, but so far no fatalities anywhere on the ship." One of the crewmen standing next to the captain reported. The crewman must have not counted the dead man behind them.

"Fuck!" the captain yelled in frustration. "What the hell were those beams?"

"From our sensors, I would say those were a slightly stronger version of the Ori primary beam weapon they use on their ships sir."

"So the Ori are behind this," the captain stated more to himself than to anybody else. Then he remembered something. "Does anyone know where we are going?"

"We don't know sir. We entered hyperspace without calculating our exit point or speed. We'll have to drop out of hyperspace and recalculate our position."

"Keep us in hyperspace for another ten minutes while the micro-ZPM recharges the shields, then drop us out," the captain said thinking that he wouldn't put it past the Ori to somehow find them the moment they drop out of hyperspace.

Ten minutes later the ship reverted to normal space, thankfully with no Ori in sight. It was time to call home.

The frontal display once again showed the face of Jack O'Neill who immediately noticed the state the bridge was in as well as two medics taking somebody away on a stretcher, "Colonel, what happened?"

"A shit storm sir," Ronson said not very tactfully.

Ronson's sentence confirmed Jack's fear, especially regarding what he now believed to be a dead crewman. Usually ship's commanders like Ronson would disregard formal protocol and revert to swearing only if something terrible like a death of someone under their command had happened. "Ronson, I want details."

"The Ori happened sir, and with ground cannons."

Jack didn't like the sound of that, but he decided to let Ronson tell the whole story before saying anything.

"We entered the system almost five light minutes from the planet. When our sensors showed there were no ships anywhere in the system, we slowly pushed toward the planet. Once we reached orbit, as if from nowhere, two energy beams hit our ship before we could even say hello. The pilot went into evasive maneuvers evading a third beam, but a fourth one managed to hit us just before I ordered a blind jump into hyperspace. We are now some two thousand light years from the planet toward the galactic North sir."

Jack nodded, still not showing any emotions, "Your and your crew's quick thinking has saved the ship Colonel. It could have been much worse if you didn't react so quickly."

"Thank you sir, I just wish nobody had to die," Ronson said in a more somber tone.

"Me too Colonel, me too. We'll pay them back Colonel, and with interest. I can promise you that."

"I would like to be there when that happens."

Jack knew what Ronson meant. He wanted to scrap the mission he was currently on, and by the look of his bridge, Jack knew he would have to stay anyway and make repairs, "For now Colonel, your orders are to reach the shipyards on Tollana and perform any necessary repairs you might have. For the rest, we'll have to leave the decision making for another day. Send to HQ all data you have collected and, Colonel, I'm happy you're still with us."

"Thank you sir, I'll send all sensor data right away," Ronson said looking at his comm. officer who immediately started prepping the data package to be sent with all relevant data.

It took another fifteen minutes to make sure they were hyperspace worthy before Ronson ordered the ship to go to Tollana.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**


	11. New Frontier

**Author's note: **Decided again to publish today rather than Friday since, apparently, Friday has become the busiest day of the week for some reason. So, here's the eleventh chapter, the last one of what I would call the introductory part of this story. With this chapter all galaxies are depicted and players introduced. Of course, that is, except the Vargas who are still an enigma and will remain that way for quite some time. Six galaxies are at play and the future of all of them is interconnected, sometimes so much that even my head hurts trying to think of them all. Well, something will somehow come out of it... eventually. In the next ten chapters some conflicts will be solved, while others will get more complicated. There will be a lot of Jack and Liam, with even some pretty bizarre stuff happening as well as some unexpected developments. With this chapter I think I'm somewhere around a third of the book, so a lot to go on until the end.

**Nagato: **the Arcturus project will be mentioned later, but still haven't decided exactly how. Even if I revive the project, it will be left for the third and final book.

**Romanhellhound: **the Ori are back; about time too.

**Ruby Pena: **in the next ten chapters there will be a lot of Aschen skimming, fighting, etc., I promise.

**Stormwolf3710: **no, he's not a goa'uld. Another race is at play. The race with the planet having been half eaten by the black hole are the Aschen. Haven't read those books you mentioned, but yes, the Wraith will follow their beloved Matriarch. Or was it feared Matriarch?

**Mwbib: **thank you.

**Senrab Nomis: **The key necessary to use the Furling legacy is a mystery. Keep in mind the Furling can see far into the future. Not in Lucius' nature to get angry. Maybe that would be his downfall too ;) As long as Todd doesn't make too big of a mistake, he's safe, but since mistakes are inevitable... About time the Ori are back, and with vengeance in mind.

**Epi: **The cannon did show a slightly higher output and fire rate, but you need to take into account the 304s had been upgraded since the last time they met. The old model would most certainly have perished. The current Terrans ships cannot be compared to those in the show. It was also luck that the Ori were not ready for them. They didn't plan the Terrans to show up; not so soon anyway. After all, the Quirilians had buried their gate, and the lack of contact between them and the Terrans is the reason why the Ori chose them for their comeback. Once the Ori activate all cannons, a ship like the 304 could never survive.

Didn't get the part about the resistance movement like "2010" or who Sekhmet is. I mean, I know who he was in Egyptian mythology, but not in the show or any other show.

**Jackless: **and the tangling is not over yet. Sometimes my head hurts thinking about everything; you'll soon see why. Weird stuff coming soon.

**chain reader:** :)

**Thanks to my beta. Everyone, hope you'll enjoy this chapter too.**

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**_Stardate: 2340.03_

Inside the chamber, the full Council was deliberating on the events that had recently transpired regarding the Ori invasion of P4M-328. They were by the most part glad to hear the Odyssey had made through what Ronson had colorfully referred to as a shit storm.

"So, the Ori are putting to good use our own tactics," Sam stated.

"It appears that way. The use of ground cannons is something we used against them. It stands to reason they would learn something from their own defeats," Klaus said.

"Well, now we have a big problem to solve. How are we going to help the Quirilians?" Daniel added.

"From what the Odyssey managed to gather, only a relatively small portion of the planet is protected by their ground cannons. Only the portion where the Ori have landed has cannons emplaced. Although, I believe the more we wait, more cannons will be added," Klaus said.

"So, we are going to play a repeat of Langara, just with the roles reversed? I don't like the sound of that. I have the feeling this is just what the Ori want," Jack said.

"It's possible, but what else can we do?"

"I know, and I still don't like it," Jack said, thinking of the number of troops they would need to liberate the planet. "Even if we manage to land on the surface, we would need to keep a constant presence in orbit with who knows how many ships if we want to prevent the Ori from just coming with theirs and blasting us all to hell from space."

"Not necessarily Jack," Klaus said.

"Meaning?"

"They have their cannons, we have our cannons. We will have to reach the planet with a sizable force, that's true, but once we are in orbit somewhere where their cannons cannot hurt us, we deploy our own cannons on the ground. This way our ships can leave without fear of an orbital strike."

"Okay, that's actually a good idea, but what about the sheer number of troops we'd need to take back the planet?"

"We would need an army, that's true, but I think we can get help from the Quirilians too. After all, it's their planet we're talking about and I don't think it will be a problem finding volunteers," Klaus said. "We can also ask our allies to chip in."

"You mean the Guardians? They still don't have a large number of ground forces at their disposal. Although, what they lack in quantity, they surely compensate in quality."

"Of course we ask the Guardians, but I was actually thinking of our other human allies. The Langarans, Pangarans, Optricans and so forth. We've been training them for years now. I think it's time to put that to good use," Klaus explained his idea.

Jack turned to face Daniel, the Foreign Affairs guy, "What do you think?"

"I think the Langarans will jump at the opportunity to give the Ori a bloody nose like mad dogs. The Optricans will also accept, probably, although not with the same numbers. Probably all are going to accept if they believe their own planet may very well be the next one on the Ori to do list."

"Yeah, it's always better to fight on somebody else's planet than on your own and they can't expect any other race to help them if they get attacked if they're not ready to do the same."

"What about the Aschen?"

"Nooooo! I'd rather go alone fighting with my bare hands than having Aschen around me. I would have to constantly check my rear to see if I get blasted by my so called allies," Jack said, angry Daniel had even considered such option. "So, it's settled. We gather a worthy fleet and we ask our allies to go to war with us."

Everybody nodded. It was the best option and Daniel thought how fighting side by side would be a good way to strengthen their bonds, but also to see who the real allies were and who was just pretending. It was always easy to be friends when everything was peachy, but when there was real need to help, only then you would see who's ready to help and a real friend and who was only pretending. There was also the fact that nobody mentioned the Jaffa, but that was more because they all knew the FJN had their hands full with the Lucians and they really didn't need another enemy to fight right now. Although, all thought the Jaffa would jump head first, even if it meant weakening their fight against the Lucians. The Jaffa were just hardwired that way.

* * *

**Satellite Galaxy – Daedalus  
**_Stardate: 2348.16_

Tendrils tore through the newly formed opening somewhere on the outskirt of the satellite galaxy known as Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), disrupting the usual calmness of space . The tendrils of pure energy were the consequence of two incompatible dimensions connecting in a single point in space-time, a point where the Daedalus exited like a bullet, quickly decelerating to speeds allowed by our dimension.

Continuing slowly, the Daedalus soon met with another ship waiting at the predefined location. The lean ship was large, almost twice the Daedalus in length alone. Together with a few transport ships that had been built by the Terrans, the Copernic class ships were a rare breed not being classified as military. The Copernic, the first of its class, was an exploration vessel built with the sole purpose of scanning large areas of space quickly. As such, the ship lacked the defensive and offensive capabilities of its distant cousins, instead allowing it to use the limited space on board to place as many scanning equipment as the ship's size would allow it.

This was the reason why the ship was here and why the Daedalus was here as well. The Daedalus would be tasked to check out anything the larger ship would discover with its long range sensors. Not having the sensor capabilities of Atlantis or Terrania, the ship was still capable of scanning thousands of light years ahead for any sign of subspace disturbance indicative of some form of high energy usage, both in normal space and in hyperspace. The ship was perfect for this mission since it would, in a relatively short time, be capable of scanning the LMC galaxy, one of Milky Way's satellite galaxies only 14,000 light-years in diameter and only 168,000 light years from Milky Way's galactic center.

Instructing one of his subordinates, the connection with the science vessel and its commander was quickly established with, one Doctor Nicholas Rush, astrophysicist, displayed on the frontal view. As a science vessel it had been decided the Copernic wouldn't fall under the direct control of the military as the rest of the ships did. Instead, the ship was manned by a civilian crew, with only a small military presence for security reasons. The reason for such move was dubious and many, including Jack, were against it, but the end reason for such decision was that, while the Terrans were expanding at a frightening pace, their fleet was expanding even faster, which left them with an ever increasing need for qualified and experienced officers to man the many new warships being constantly built. The need for officers made the council think how ships like the Copernic as well as many others in the future that weren't built with a clear military purpose in mind, could be manned by nonmilitary personnel.

"Doctor Rush, do you have anything for us?" Colonel Caldwell asked, always going straight to the matter.

"Not much. This is the third location we have scanned so far with very little to no results. The only thing we did find is one system that should have one habitable planet."

"Should? Meaning you're not sure Doctor?"

"Of course we are not sure. At such distances the only thing we can detect is the mass and the radiological emissions of celestial bodies and that's not enough to be certain if a planet is habitable." Rush said, trying to explain to the military man that they after all didn't have a magic ball.

"Can you not detect if a planet is inhabited?" Caldwell replied, not knowing the real capabilities of Copernic's scanners.

"We can if they use some advanced technology that emits high levels of energy, energy that is transferred through subspace as noise. So far we haven't detected anything of the sort."

"Alright Doctor, give us the coordinates and we'll check it out while you go on to the next location."

Rush looked at somebody next to him that wasn't visible on the screen, nodding to him and letting him know he needed to send the data.

On the Daedalus, the comm. officer received the datastream, quickly nodding to Caldwell he had what they needed, "Doctor, we'll see each other after we check the planet. Good… scanning to you and your crew, Caldwell out."

As the connection was severed, the colonel instructed the ship to enter hyperspace. The ship lurched forward the next moment, quickly entering hyperspace and leaving the science vessel once again alone.

The voyage to the merely 500 light years distant planet took less than four minutes at cruising speed where the Daedalus once again exited the dimension known as hyperspace, quickly pushing toward the planet the Copernic had flagged as possibly being habitable. Entering orbit above said planet, the Daedalus began making scans of its own. Quickly, data started pouring in, indeed confirming the Copernic's suspicion of the planet being livable, with an atmosphere almost identical to that of Earth and only with a slightly lower gravity of 0.97g.

Orbiting around the planet in an attempt to scan the entire surface, the sensors picked up something unusual. On the planet's surface, directly below the ship, the sensors detected what appeared to be ruins. Knowing this as being indicative that at least in the past the planet had been home to an intelligent race, per mission mandate the captain of the ship ordered a closer survey of the area. Their mission was to find any planet in the galaxy that had some indication of intelligent life having lived in the past or, if they still existed, to find them and make first contact.

Raptor one exited the hangar bay of the larger ship, plunging downward into the planet's atmosphere. Reaching a planetary altitude of ten kilometers, the raptors started taking pictures of the area beneath with its optical cameras placed underneath the hull. Images taken from the raptor were quickly transferred to the larger ship in orbit for further analysis and confirmation of what the Daedalus sensors had previously found. Finishing their scanning of the area, the Raptor settled near the ruins they had found in order to further investigate on foot.

One exploration team, comprised of four members as it was usual, exited the rear of the raptor. In front of them, the ruins looked worn off, already predicting their age numbering in the hundreds if not thousands of years. As the designated archaeologist on the team moved closer to one of the carved stone slabs, his face turned into one of utter puzzlement.

"What is it?" captain Jennings asked, seeing the archaeologist's expression.

"This is really interesting."

"What's interesting?"

"This hieroglyphs… I recognize them."

"You do? How?"

"I'm not an expert on the subject, but these are most definitely Mayan hieroglyphs."

"Mayan, as in… from Earth Mayan?"

"The only one I know," the archaeologist said, fully immersed in his discovery. "I think this entire slab is a stela, or I think the Mayan called them Tetun."

"Tetun?"

"Yes, it means tree-stone. The Mayan used them to depict their rulers along with hieroglyphic texts describing their genealogy, military victories and other accomplishments."

"Can you translate what it says?"

"I think I have a program for translating hieroglyphs to something we can understand. I think the program has Mayan hieroglyphs in its database too."

"Alright, you work on this while we check the rest of this place. Collins, you stay with him," the team leader said before moving further. As he walked with the last member of his team, he spoke, "Mayan? How the hell did Mayans get in this galaxy?"

"Don't know. As far as I know the Goa'uld never ventured outside the Milky Way galaxy and even in our galaxy we never found a planet with descendants from the Mayans," the second man said before starting to smile for some reason.

"What?"

"Oh nothing. I just thought how Daniel Jackson would probably give his left nut to be here right now."

"Next time I see our council member, I'll tell him you said that."

"You wouldn't!"

"Then don't make such comments. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir," the man said, just before noticing something moving in the high grass in the field less than fifty meters ahead of their position.

"Did you see that?"

"See what?"

"I saw something moving fifty meters in that direction," the man said, pointing in said direction.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Alright, let's see what it was."

Moving quickly and crossing the distance to the edge of the high grass field, they saw something move again. Slowly approaching and putting the high grass aside with his hand, the captain saw a creature squatting in the grass. The medium sized creature had big ears, grey as the rest of its body, with no fur to speak of. What caught their attention the most though, were the eyes. The eyes were big, almost Asgard-big, but weren't black as theirs. These almost puppy eyes were looking intently at the newcomers, scrutinizing every movement they would make. The captain thought that if the bipedal creature stood upright, it would be at least three feet tall, but so far it had kept hunkered down. There was also the thing that the creature looked so damn cute, especially with those round eyes and flapping ears. It was a strange creature, certainly something both men had never seen in their life, ever before.

"Hey little fella," The captain said slowly approaching the creature.

As he did, the creature suddenly showed the row of very sharp teeth it had been hiding so far. His expression also changed into that of a predator. The captain instinctively stepped back, immediately placing his hand on his holstered gun. The creature suddenly stopped its advance losing quickly its threatening demeanor and again looking like a beaten up and very much frightened puppy.

"Sir, I don't like how those teeth looked like," the second team member said.

The captain on the other hand saw something else he didn't like. As much as the creature now looked defenseless, the captain was very leery of it. The thing he didn't like was how the creature had reacted when he had placed his hand on his handgun. Understanding that the gun was something dangerous that can hurt him, it meant the creature was highly intelligent, which also meant the creature's defenseless behavior was probably just a ruse. "That thing saw me grabbing my gun and it backed away."

The second man was about to ask the captain if he was certain, when the confirmation came in the form of a wicked smile from ear to ear on the creature's face.

"Now we are getting somewhere?" the captain said seeing the creature's changed expression, but then he noticed more movements in the field in front of them. "I think he has friends around here."

His teammate noticed that fact as well, especially after several more creatures came into the open, stepping on both sides of their little friend. "How many you think there are around here?"

The captain looked at the pockets of moving grass, quickly counting more than two dozens of them. "I think enough for us to step back."

Nodding, Roberts as well as the captain slowly began moving backwards while watching more and more creatures jumping out as if from nowhere. "They don't look so cute anymore sir. They now look more like some angry… gremlins."

"Nice description. Let's not find out how angry they really are, shall we?" the captain said before tapping his comm. device. "Collins, we have some possible hostiles here. We are coming back towards you. Be ready to move back to the raptor the moment we are there."

As the captain finished those words, one of the creatures hissed angrily, leaping forward. The captain instinctively let loose a short burst from his rifle, hitting the creature that fell on the ground injured. Behind him, at least a hundred more '_gremlins' _exited the field of grass, clear sign it was time to speed things up. After a small nod, both men turned running as fast as they could while the, by now, horde of gremlins was quickly gaining on them.

Nearing the location where the other two men were, one of the gremlins leaped forward, sinking his teeth in the captain's leg. The captain yelped_,_ but recovering quickly from the initial stupor and pain he slammed the back of his rifle into the creature's head. The creature let loose, only for a burst of bullets coming from Collins to kill it on the spot. As the captain passed Collins' position, the designated archaeologist understood the sheer number of hostiles demanded something bigger than just bullets. Reluctantly, knowing that the ruins would most certainly suffer from it even before he had the chance to catalogue them, the archaeologist threw a grenade at the approaching horde of gremlins, while backing up with the rest of the team. The resulting explosion threw several of the creatures into the air.

Fortunately for the team, most of the horde had also stopped their chase after having seen the devastation the grenade had brought. The break didn't last for long, but it did allow the team to reach the raptor while having to fend off only a few of the creatures that hadn't stopped. Entering the raptor, the captain quickly instructed the pilot to close the rear hatch and to take off as quickly as possible.

Hovering fifty meters above the ground, the team as well as the pilot were finally able to see what was coming their way. A sea of creatures was moving through the ruins, easily numbering in the thousands.

"Where did they come from?" the captain asked since suddenly finding thousands of living beings on a planet that didn't show to have any, was very strange.

"Don't know, don't care. We got out, that's what counts. How's the leg by the way?"

"It hurts like hell, but I'll live," the captain said looking at his left leg, slightly above his boot where the thing had bitten him. He would have to spend some time in the infirmary; that was for certain. "Were you able to translate that thing, what did you call it?"

The archaeologist turned from staring at his tablet, "A Tetun, and yes I did manage to translate it, and if whoever made them have used the same way to count the days as the Mayans on Earth did, and I don't see why they wouldn't, then this Tetun was built in 911 AD, which more or less coincides with the end of the Mayan classic period. The classic period of the Mayans was between 250 and 900 AD, at the end of which it is believed a great calamity struck the Mayan civilization. Some scholars have recently theorized that an intense 200 year long drought led to the collapse of the Mayan civilization."

"I just asked you if you translated the damn thing, not a history lesson in Mayan culture," the captain replied, annoyed at McNally's lengthy answer.

"I know, but it is interesting how the time of the end of what is believed to be the greatest period of the Mayans almost perfectly coincides…"

"McNally!"

"Yes sir?"

"Zip it!"

"Yes sir."

The other two members of the team were barely able to contain their laughter, but when they saw the captain's expression now directed at them, they quickly settled down.

Finally the raptor had reached the Daedalus and even though injured, the captain wanted to give his summation of events that had transpired on the planet to the colonel, "…and that's what happened."

The colonel had heard the story and he was thinking how this day had very quickly turned out into a very weird one, with Mayans and gremlins on what they thought was an uninhabited planet.

"Hyperspace window opening ten light-seconds port side sir," the lieutenant manning the sensors practically yelled.

'_Of course, weird things attract even weirder things,'_ the colonel thought. "How did we not detect them before?" the colonel asked, knowing full well they had sensors capable of scanning for light years away for any ship traveling through hyperspace.

"I don't know sir. They might have some kind of stealth system, or they were close by and made just a short jump."

"Put them on screen. Let's see how their ship looks like."

On the frontal display the image of something that could barely be construed as a ship appeared. The thing was pitch black and it looked almost like a mile long beehive, but it definitely wasn't organic in nature like the Wraith hives. The massive size also didn't bode well, but for now at least, the thing kept its distance.

"What are our sensors telling us Lieutenant?"

"Scans are unable to detect any weapon's emplacement on the entire ship's hull. The ship doesn't have shields or they haven't raise them yet, but the hull of the ship is capable of blocking most of our scans. The sensors though have been able to pick up thousands of life signs inside the ship and an unknown power source. The energy readings are also quite high."

"Send our standard greetings message. Also, apologize if we intruded on their territory."

Waiting for any reply from the much larger vessel, the captain was beginning to like that ship less and less. Even though the ship hadn't attacked them or even approached them, he was more than certain they wouldn't become friends any time soon. From his long career as a starship captain, he knew that the chance of meeting friendly races was very rare, and that most first contacts never ended as he would like for them to end.

His suspicions were quickly answered, when the ship started spewing smaller craft from the many openings on the ship's hull. Soon, it also became apparent that the number of ships had quickly climbed to match at least half of the number of life signs the Daedalus' sensors had been able to pick up. The smaller craft looked like almost perfect spheres no more than two meters in diameter, looking identical no matter from which side you looked at them.

As the cloud of small spheres sped toward their location, the captain started liking the situation even less, "Raise shields and bring our railgun and plasma repeater batteries online. Somehow I think our big guns won't be helpful here."

It was true. Their four newly installed plasma beams, capable of delivering terawatt-hours of destructive energy with each hit, wouldn't do them any good against a swarm of smaller vessels.

The much larger Daedalus quickly found itself engulfed in the swarm of spherical ships, but yet no weapons fire had been exchanged. The swarm was simply circling the ship.

"What are they waiting?" the colonel said more to himself than to anyone else.

"The sensors are showing the small craft have only one passenger on board each."

"Let's move away, slowly."

The Daedalus engaged its sublight engines, slowly pushing in the opposite direction of the much larger and unknown ship, but the swarm was following every move they made, dancing with perfect synchrony around them.

"I think I had enough of this. Engage the hyperdrive. We are leaving."

Waiting patiently for almost a minute, the Colonel soon became puzzled at the lack of a forming hyperspace window, "Helm, what's with the delay?"

"Sir, I'm trying to open a hyperspace window, but the system is refusing to comply with my requests. The system is detecting some kind of distortion around us and it's blocking my attempts since it believes the hyperspace window would quickly become unstable, resulting in the destruction of our ship upon entry."

The colonel suddenly understood why the small ships didn't fire one single shot. If they didn't have advanced systems from the Asgard and the Alterrans on board the ship detecting the problem, they would most certainly have exploded the moment they tried to enter hyperspace. The ship's advanced systems had in time detected the danger and saved the ship, "Stop trying to enter hyperspace. These little buggers are trying to destroy us without even having to fire a single shot."

The small ships, by now having been flagged as hostile, must have understood their little ruse didn't work because they decided to use a more direct approach to the problem instead. The Daedalus' shields started to flare from the myriad of small beams from the swarm of craft that surrounded them. The Terran ship didn't wait any longer, starting to fire from their twelve railguns and plasma repeaters. Since the crewman manning the weapons had intelligently decided to let the ship automatically find targets since, with so many targets, there was no point in aiming manually, the ship started barking bullets and small but nonetheless very deadly plasma bolts in all directions, hitting many of the enemy vessels. The automatic weapons targeting system, soon was able to ascertain that the small but shielded craft were able to fend off many hits before being destroyed, quickly changing its fire to let at least several hits hit a craft before switching target to the next one. The plasma repeaters fared better since they were better equipped to deal with shielded craft but they had almost half the fire rate of the railguns, almost equaling their effectiveness.

"Sir, our shields are under tremendous stress. The shield generators are having trouble keeping up with so many weapons hitting us," one of the crewman replied. The shields were always the most effective when they could focus on one weapon's fire at a time since they could then increase the shield density in that specific area. Now, with so many weapons firing, the shield generators had stopped even trying to transfer energy to a specific section of the shield.

"Are you saying that their weapons are capable of draining our shield's energy reserves faster than we can replenish them?" the Colonel asked.

"Yes sir. We could engage the micro-ZPM and transfer energy directly to the shields, but that would only give as more time and so far we haven't been able to even dent their numbers."

The Colonel didn't like it. They couldn't escape, and they couldn't keep like this forever. The ship has never been designed to fend off so many smaller targets at once. They always followed Jack's _big-honking-space-guns_ logic when building ships. "Shield status?"

"Sixty-nine percent and falling."

After thinking for a while the Colonel instructed the crew to follow a predefined set of actions that, in his opinion, could turn the tide in their favor. The ship lurched again, making a few evasive moves in order to throw as many enemy vessels off of them, before engaging the engines at full military thrust, pushing the ship in the direction of the larger enemy ship. Most of the spacecraft had fallen behind, but they were still in hard pursuit with not even a hint of wanting to end this fight. As the ship approached the larger enemy vessel, behind the ship, a Mark IX enhanced nuclear warhead blinked into existence as if from nowhere. The problem with this plan was that they had to drop their shield for a moment, but the captain thought the hull could take a few hits from the smaller craft still surrounding them for the fraction of a second the shield would be down. As they moved past the larger ship, near the location where they had dropped the warhead, the tip of the chasing swarm reached the same location. It was then that a bright sun formed irradiating the emptiness of space, the swarm and the larger ship with massive amounts of radiation.

Like Icarus who flew to close to the sun, even with its shield raised, the larger ship's port side began to melt while the forward elements of the swarm simply vanished. Seeing the damage to the ship, as well as the sudden disappearance of almost a thousand sphere-shaped craft, the captain of the Daedalus smiled. Again and again the Terrans had to teach others that if you mess with them, you'll inevitably get burned, literally this time. Nevertheless, the fight was far from over as the rear of the swarm had time to evade the brunt of the blast. Even with almost a thousand lost in the blast and hundreds having been damaged, drifting aimlessly in space, the rest, comprised of almost two thousand more craft were still in hard pursuit of the Daedalus. The Daedalus in the meantime had enough time and firepower to get rid of most of those craft that had successfully stayed near the ship. It was now time to show them the Terrans had more to offer.

The ship made a sharp turn, now directed at the approaching enemy swarm at full speed. Before they collided though, the Daedalus let loose of dozens upon dozens of golden squids at the approaching swarm. The first few drones that pierced the small craft, quickly detected where the most damage inside the craft could be done, the same moment sending that particularly useful information to their brethren. Instead of simply exploding on impact, their new knowledge allowed the drones to pierce the small craft in the right place, disabling it in one pass, just before turning to the next craft in line and quickly doing the same. The drones were doing a great job, capable of disabling almost ten enemy craft before exhausting their limited energy reserves and blowing up inside the last one they would hit.

The first salvo of hundred drones had quickly halved the enemy swarm, now numbering a little above a thousand. The next moment the two sides clashed together with the Daedalus letting loose of their railguns and plasma repeaters at maximum fire rate. The enemy swarm did the same letting loose from their tiny beam weapons, at least compared to Daedalus' ones, hitting the Daedalus with thousand needles, but with less than one third the initial size, the shields of the Daedalus were more than capable of restoring the shield's matrix at the same rate as the weapons were depleting it.

Thinking how the fight had definitely turned in their favor, the colonel didn't like the two thousand more spheres exiting the damaged, but still operational beehive ship. If he knew there were more, he would have stuck another Mark IX down the ship's throat. With the drones reserves already halved and the swarm still very much blocking them from opening a safe hyperspace window, the colonel started looking for alternatives. He knew the little trick with the beamed Mark IX would not have the same effect as it did the first time, fully aware the swarm of ships would watch for it. The problem was, he didn't know what else he could do. Launching the sixteen F-302c vipers, even though upgraded and much deadlier than their predecessor, would only serve to send their pilots to their more than assured deaths. Already prepared to instruct the crew to activate the micro-ZPM that would give them at least some breathing time, as well as ordering the remaining drones to be launched, the captain was interrupted by one of his crew.

"Captain, hyperspace window opening!"

The captain quickly began going in his head through all the possibilities on what could come out of the newly forming hyperspace window. The first and of course the worst possibility was that the aliens were getting reinforcements. The second, even though only as a remote possibility, was that the Copernic was coming here. The Daedalus had sent a distress signal informing the Copernic they had found hostiles, but the message was more in the tone to warn the Copernic to stay clear and not, instead, to come here.

As usually it turns out, there was a third option the colonel didn't think of. From the hyperspace window a ship almost a mile long exited, quickly pushing toward the Daedalus and the swarm.

"Captain, the ship has sent us a message stating they are here to assist us."

As the ship coasted the Daedalus and the swarm with his starboard side, the newcomer let loose of countless bolts of energy at the swarm from an impressive number of turrets and by doing so confirming the truthfulness of the statement in their message. They were here to help. A quick count gave more than a hundred turrets, just on the starboard side of the ship and although maybe not as powerful as the plasma repeaters, they were definitely more powerful than their railguns and the fire rate was very impressive. Streams of energy bolts were quickly decimating the swarm, so quickly that the swarm let loose of their prey, quickly moving back towards their beehive.

"Oh, no you won't!" Colonel Caldwell exclaimed angrily. "Bring the plasma beams online, and change course to intercept the large enemy ship.

The Daedalus lurched, quickly gaining speed behind the fleeing swarm. As it reached weapons range, the four beams of compressed superheated plasma burst forward, vaporizing the smaller craft in their wake before impacting their real target, the large beehive ship. Without too much effort, the four beams went straight through the already damaged ship, with internal explosions rocking the one kilometer long ship with the rear reactor blowing up the next second. The ship started breaking apart, with a large explosion that caught a good portion of the swarm that was trying to dock inside the ship.

With the ship destroyed and their numbers decimated, the rest of the swarm, now counting in a mere hundred, started moving erratically in all directions with nothing of the previous agility and almost perfect coordination the crew of the Daedalus had witnessed earlier. With the enemy looking very much disorganized the unknown but apparently friendly ship let loose of almost two hundred fighters. Caldwell, not wanting to let someone else do all the work, ordered the sixteen vipers to do the same. Reaching the enemy swarm and with the support of the two larger ships, the various fighters made short work of the remaining enemy spacecraft leaving only floating wreckage in their wake.

First day of their new mission in another galaxy, and Caldwell found himself having already fought an unknown enemy, having depleted thirty percent of his railgun rounds and having halved the number of drones he had less than thirty minutes ago; drones he had previously believed would be a complete waste of good cargo space. And now he had to see what yet another unknown race wanted or who they were. At least it was a much better start than with the first race they'd encountered in this galaxy. Adding the fact that they had found some strange and hostile creatures on the ground where there are also ruins of a civilization that shouldn't be here in this galaxy in the first place, the colonel could safely label this day as one of the weirdest in his long career. And the day was probably going to become even weirder.

* * *

**Satellite Galaxy – Aboard the Unknown Vessel  
**_Stardate: 2348.65_

Colonel Caldwell was waiting aboard the ship of the newly met race, the one that had helped them in a very difficult situation. As he was thinking about the recent engagement, the colonel could already create a pretty decent picture of this newly met race. First, this ship was a warship, there was no question about it, and the rows of turrets on the ship's hull combined with the almost nonexistent heavier weapons told the captain these people had been fighting the unknown race for a very long time. Only if you knew the enemy was going to attack you with a swarm of smaller craft, only then you would ever build ships with so many turrets. Second, from the view screen through which they had talked for the first time, he knew they were humans. Their facial features also could be compared to those of the Mayans, which probably meant the ruins on the planet were theirs. As he had thought before, he thought again how this day could not get any weirder.

While he was thinking about current events inside a small conference room where he had been brought earlier, the door slid open and a man, quickly followed by two guards, walked in. Stopping in front of him, the man was clearly scrutinizing the unknown human with a clearly too pale skin for his taste.

"My name is Nacon. I'm the commander of this vessel," Nacon said.

"Nice to meet you Nacon, I'm Colonel Caldwell, captain of the Daedalus."

Nacon still continued scrutinizing the man in front of him, "You are human?"

"I am. We are all humans."

"How? We searched for many decades, ever since we were able to travel the stars, but found no evidence of any other human world."

"May I ask why you were looking for other human worlds?"

"We… we were looking for our ancestors' home."

"May I also ask if the ruins on the planet below are of some of your ancestors?"

Nacon thought how this man was asking a lot of questions and giving very little in return, and yet he was polite in his questioning; behavior that didn't warrant any angry reply from him as Nacon would most certainly have done if this wasn't the case, "They are. Why?"

"I'm asking because, although I'm not an archaeologist or historian, even I was able to recognize them from having seen similar ruins on my planet."

Nacon's wide eyes told Caldwell all he needed to know. These people had been searching for Earth.

"We call the race that built such ruins on our planet, the Mayans."

"I am not familiar with that name. My race is called Tik'al," Nacon replied.

Caldwell thought about the name Nacon had given him and he did remember the designated archaeologist on the ship having mumbled something about some Mayan cities. Among them he remembered having heard the name Tikal as one of the greatest cities in the Mayan classic period. "Tikal is the name of one of the greatest ancient Mayan cities on my planet," Caldwell replied, smiling.

"Old inscriptions talk about our race having lived in Tikal before having been taken by the gods to our new home."

"Gods? What gods?"

"Our sacred texts speak of Alom, the god of the skies having taken us to our new world in a great chariot. Although, we now know they were taken by a spaceship and they were not gods but just aliens who for some reason had helped our civilization grow."

"Do you maybe know the name of the race that took you from our planet?"

"No, they never told us and never showed us their true faces either," Nacon said thoughtfully. "Returning to our previous discussion, you said that you are from the first world if I understood you correctly. May I ask where it is, because, it's bugging the hell out of me and my people not being able to find it?"

Caldwell decided at that moment that he liked the guy. He wasn't uptight, or too diplomatic. He asked questions freely and that meant collaboration with him would be that much easier. "Earth, as we call it, is a hundred and sixty thousand light years from here in the Milky Way galaxy."

"Oh, that explains why we never found it. We've never ventured outside our galaxy. If I understand correctly, the Milky Way galaxy as you call it is the largest galaxy near this one."

"Yes. This galaxy is what we call a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It circles around ours."

"Yes, we know. How did you reach us here? I mean, distances such as these are not easy to cross."

"Yeah, it took us two days to come here."

Nacon's jaw dropped, not touching the floor, but just barely, "You are kidding, right?"

"Nope."

"That is really... fast."

"Yeah, we have the fastest hyperdrives in the neighborhood," Caldwell said, but then decided it was time to stop bragging about their hyperdrives, that actually weren't theirs to begin with, and to start talking about something more important. "Look, Nacon, who were those aliens we beat the crap out just moments ago?"

Nacon sighed, "They are called Leptinians and we've been fighting them for as long as I can remember. You were lucky we were in the neighborhood and that we picked up your distress signal."

"Yeah, if you didn't come when you did, I don't know if we would be able to beat them all. Our ship is far from being ideal to fight large numbers of smaller craft."

"In the beginning, ours weren't either. I still remember stories about swarms of ships descending upon our worlds, almost completely turning day into night."

"That doesn't sound too good. Didn't you have some warning?"

Nacon shook his head, "None. We still don't know from where they came and the ships we had at the time were no match for theirs. Our main cannons were useless and we had barely a dozen turrets on them. Our orbital platforms fared a little better, but only a few worlds that had larger numbers of those platforms were able to repel their attacks. From twelve worlds on which our great civilization was once forged, only three survive to this day," Nacon said with apparent sadness in his voice. Looking outside of the window on the planet below, he continued, "This planet is one of those worlds that didn't survive the attack."

"So, the creatures down there are Leptinians? That's the same race as the one on that ugly ship?"

"They are."

"But those down there were naked and they had no weapons, except for their teeth," Caldwell said, remembering the wound the reconnaissance team leader had sustained.

"This planet, the same as many others, has become their breeding ground."

"Breeding ground? I don't follow."

"The Leptinians are the strangest race we have ever met; not that we met a lot of them when I think about it. Anyway, the first thing you must understand about them is that they are as dumb as a rock."

"They didn't look that dumb. I mean, if they have space ships. Their attacks were also well coordinated."

"That's because you didn't see them separated. When a Leptinian is alone, he is barely capable of behaving like an animal that follows the most basic of instincts, but when you increase their numbers, they become smarter and smarter."

"How?"

"We are not sure, but our top minds have theorized that the Leptinians are telepathic and when there is more than one of them, they use something we call networked intelligence. In essence, every Leptinian brain serves as a computational node and when you increase the number of nodes, their computational abilities add up following a linear increase in intelligence."

Caldwell was thoughtful. This was the first time he heard of something like this, "We are fighting a war with an alien race that also has telepathic abilities, but they never showed anything similar to what you have just described, but what has this to do with this planet being their breeding ground?"

"Well, as far as we can tell, it looks like they choose a planet when they start their new breeding cycle, which by the way is quite short I might add. Then, they multiply quickly until they reach a certain number and then they suddenly stop."

"Stop? Do you know why?"

"We believe that their growth is stopped because of the way they get smarter. Somewhere there must be some larger concentration of them, probably making them as smart as they can be and we think they don't want to have competition inside their own race."

"You believe they are instructed to stop multiplying so that there's no chance of some group trying to cut off from the rest?"

"We do. We believe so because they don't leave any technology or knowledge on their breeding planets."

"This way, even when their numbers have reached its peak, they have no way of leaving the planet. Smart buggers, I will say that. So, they have breeding planets and what you believe a central planet where their entire civilization is located, or most of it at least, which probably makes them smart as hell if your theory is right. Did you try to destroy their breeding grounds?"

"We did, in several ways, but nothing worked. Sending troops on a breeding planet is almost like tossing your people from a cliff and even if you send enough or if you bombard the planet from orbit, they have their nests deep underground and even if a small pocket survives they are able to repopulate in a matter of months or maybe a year."

"You weren't kidding when you said they multiply quickly."

"Each one of them can have two to four offspring every month, and they become adults after mere two months. And they are also asexual, which means that when the breeding cycle starts, they all have children."

"Which means, they are growing in numbers exponentially, quickly replenishing any losses they might sustain?" Caldwell asked rhetorically.

"Exactly, and only recently we were able to make some progress, small as it is."

"What kind of progress?"

"Since we now understand there is no way of beating them by trying to kill them, we switched our tactics, trying to first find where they have their assets, like shipyards, mines and manufacturing facilities, and then hit them hard. If they don't have ships, their number means nothing."

"So you had some success?"

"We did. We recently destroyed one of their large shipyards they use for building those big transport ships and two mines, but we fear it is not enough to make a difference. We have only three worlds left, and their attacks are more frequent with each passing day. We fear we won't be able to win this war."

"Well, they wouldn't call us the Fifth Race if we left our brethren alone in time of need."

"Fifth Race?"

"Yes, we are one of the Four Great Races, spanning through our region of four of the largest galaxies in the Local Group."

"Four Great Races? You just said you are called the Fifth Race?"

"One had disappeared a long time ago. We believe it is the same one that took you from our planet and brought you here."

"Ah."

"That race is actually the reason why we are here. They have left a beacon in one of the satellite galaxies to help us find them, but as usual they didn't leave exact instructions on how to find it. Go figure."

Nacon was suddenly thoughtful, but he didn't let it show, "I tell you what. You help us with the Leptinians and we'll help you find the beacon."

"I agree, but that's a conversation meant for our respective leaders and not us mere captains."

"Indeed. What do we know about politics? We would probably get results too fast. How do you propose we proceed?"

"Do you have a stargate?" Caldwell asked trying not to laugh.

"We do, but it connects to only a few planets in this galaxy."

"It doesn't matter. We know how to configure the damn thing to dial from practically anywhere to anywhere else, or better to say, the scientists aboard my ship know how to do that, because I have no clue how that thing works."

"Me neither, almost as much as our scientists who are barely starting to understand how it works."

"Well, it's easier if you have one member of the race that built the thing helping you."

"But, stargates are millions of years old?"

"He is too."

"Ah."

Caldwell watched the commander of the ship remaining calm even though he was getting some pretty earth-shattering revelations today. Caldwell knew that the little syllable the commander would speak was actually the most the man would show as being surprised. Caldwell liked the commander. He didn't know if every Tik'al was nice and friendly as he was, but he had high hopes for the Mayan descendants.

Finally, a few things had been solved, with many questions about this strange day having been answered as well, but Caldwell knew the Leptinians would not be such an easy opponent and with the other problems the Terrans were having in their own galaxy, he knew the Council would not be particularly pleased to hear they now have yet another hostile race nearby, no matter that they had found some friends too. Finishing their conversation, the colonel returned to his ship.

Their next destination, Tik'al.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated. **


	12. Battleground

**Stormwolf3710: **The idea was to create something different, not just yet another human race or a race somehow related to humans like the Wraith. The stargate universe is filled enough with human races to begin with. I always found strange that in so many galaxies there are so little other nonhuman races.

**Burns:** If I hadn't already written the next few chapter I would have taken what you wrote ;). No matter, there will be something similar in the chapters to come.

**romanhellhound:** for once I wanted to introduce a completely new race, not yet seen. A race that behaves differently from any other.

**Ruby Pena:** probably you meant the Leptinians as a good enemy. The Ti'kal are the Mayans in the story.

**Epi:** Yes, the Ori were on the planet for some time, and they didn't plan the Quirilians to unearth the gate and call the Terrans. It messed up with their preparations. I went on wikipedia and found the Sekhmet. No wonder I didn't know about them. They are part of some RPG game I haven't played. Also, the Ori have enough followers to not need another race to use as slaves. All humans in their galaxy are slaves, and they have a supergate to bring as many as they need to the Milky Way galaxy. With the Aschen, Lucians and the Ori i thought there were enough humans doing the evil overlords routine. Besides, it doesn't fit into my overall story with the Furling to have evil humans in that galaxy.

**Senrab Nomis:** The Ori have chosen P4M-328 very carefully. It is the planet with most humans on it that has no ties with the Terrans. A perfect first planet to start with round two. Well, the Leptinians and the way they network their brains into a supercomputer does give a few interesting options. It also brings the inevitable question on how to win against such enemy.

**Draco Volans:** I'm glad you like the Leptinians, and with them I'm done introducing new players. Now is time to focus on those that are already here. Jack's vacation coming right away ;)

**Thanks to my beta reader, and hope you'll like this chapter too.**

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy - Quirilian System  
**_Stardate:__2368.02_

Somewhere inside the system where the planet Quiril resided, a lone hyperspace window opened deploying a single SF-308 Hades class stealth frigate. The small ship immediately started scanning the system for any possible threat. As the ship found none, it sent a short burst of encrypted data through subspace.

Near Quiril's orbit, somewhere where the Terrans were certain the Ori didn't deploy their powerful ground cannons on the surface below, a row of hyperspace windows tore opened, allowing dozens of ships to revert to normal space. The first to come out were six BC-304 ships and a lonely BB-305 Achilles class ship, the by now upgraded Redemption. Following closely behind, one SC-310 Colossus Class super carrier as well as seven AC-309 Athena Class assault carriers joined the group of ships already in orbit. The massive two mile long SC and the seven AC's were carrying the first wave of troops and vehicles to be deployed on the planet beneath. The rear of the fleet was comprised of more transport ships, ten cruisers and one battleship from the Guardians, as well as six Asgard O'Neill II battlecruisers, quickly making the fleet in orbit reach more than thirty ships in total. Apparently, the Second Great Alliance was not leaving anything to chance when dealing with the Ori.

On board the SC-310, inside the Command Information Center (CIC), a group of very important people were looking at the large display showing the planet below.

"Deploy the satellites in a two hundred miles radius and coordinate with the rest of the ships to charge the Fortress Shield," Jack ordered to one of the officers standing nearby.

The Fortress Shield was comprised of hundreds of shield satellites that would be charged through the high frequency subspace band from all ships that had the newly developed system installed on board, which in this case was all ships except the Terran and Guardian cruisers. It meant that almost twenty ships would divert a considerable amount of their power generation to the satellite grid in order to bring the massive shield up at full strength as quickly as possible. Still, it would take at least twenty minutes to charge the monstrosity to full strength. The use of the Fortress Shield was ideal for such situations, as it provided protection for the relatively weak raptors and hammerhead drop-ships that would be used to deploy the first wave of troops on the ground. With the massive shield up, the smaller ships had nothing to worry about, at least while still under the shield's protective umbrella.

"Satellites have been deployed and shield is charging sir," the same officer replied.

Jack nodded, "What do you think?" Jack asked Liam when he saw his pensive expression.

Liam was looking at the display that was scrolling data regarding the enemy emplacements on the planet, "They have spread more than three hundred miles in all directions since the Odyssey was here, and I'm counting more than twenty ground cannons active."

"Yeah, they didn't waste any time," Jack replied, he too looking intently at the screen.

The area under Ori control was now more than 500 miles in diameter and spreading almost without resistance from the locals. While the Ori would soon reach the end of the continent on the north, they still had a lot to go on the south.

"The Quirilians are preparing a defense line less than two hundred miles from the Ori forces on the south. It looks like a mistake," Liam said.

Jack had to agree. As much as he could understand the Quirilian wish to stop the Ori advance as soon as possible, with the fast pace at which the Ori were moving, the Quirilians wouldn't have the needed time to emplace adequate defenses before the Ori tide met with them. "Yup, they will have to retreat further to the south if they want to have a chance at least. We should go meet them."

"Can we beam down?" Liam asked.

Jack looked at the same officer as before with a questioning look.

"No sir. The interference the Odyssey has detected is still active," the officer replied.

"Then we go as planned. Notify Colonel Pierce he has a go."

The officer quickly used his comm. unit and a minute later, from the belly of the SC, a dozen vipers, followed by six raptors and one hammerhead exited the massive ship. They quickly turned downward toward the planet, descending rapidly on an direct approach vector toward what they believed to be the Quirilian military headquarter, some thirty miles behind the defense line they were trying to erect.

This was a tricky situation since the Quirilians most certainly didn't know help was coming and the interference was making communications with them impossible from orbit. They hoped once they got nearer they would be able to contact them and explain who they were. They also thought their stealth technology was capable of blocking any sensors the Quirilians might have, allowing them to practically land unnoticed. While the vipers had the ability to cloak, something they did immediately, the raptors and the hammerhead still haven't had that particular feature installed.

As the group of craft descended deeper and deeper into the planet's atmosphere, Pierce, who was inside one of the raptors, was glad to notice the absence of any reaction from the Quirilians. Still, two helicopters, closely resembling Earth's Apache were circling their headquarter. He thought it was probably because the Quirilians as well knew that only the old eyeball detection system would work against the much more advanced invaders. Pierce knew it was now time to contact them, before they would spot them.

It took a few in vain attempts, but eventually somebody did respond.

"Who is this?" a rough and deep voice was heard over the open comm. channel.

"I'm Colonel Pierce of the Terran Special Forces. We are currently on a direct approach towards your headquarter. We ask you to hold your fire and to allow us to land safely. Please acknowledge my request."

"Terrans?" was the only reply.

"Yes, the Terrans. Do you know who we are?" Pierce asked impatiently.

"I am Quartus, and I had the pleasure of meeting some of your people in the past. How do I know this is not some kind of trick and that you won't bomb us the moment you enter weapons range?"

"Mr. Quartus, your systems are unable to detected our craft, am I correct in that assumption?"

Reluctantly Quartus replied, "You are correct."

"Well, here's your answer. If we wanted to bomb you, we wouldn't be having this conversation at all."

It took almost a minute for the reply to come, "Very well. I'm sending landing coordinates."

"Thank you, Pierce out."

As minutes passed the six raptors and one much larger, almost forty meters in length, hammerhead made their way to the designated landing coordinates under the dedicated protection of twelve vipers, landing in the midst of various armored ground vehicles.

Pierce didn't like the amount of military vehicles and troops that were all around them, but it wasn't like he didn't expect it. He would actually have been more surprised if they didn't bring the heavy guns. He exited first from one of the raptors, wearing the Terran next generation combat exoskeleton, a tight mechanical suit that made him irrationally feel safe even when faced with so many weapons pointed at him. Irrationally, because if one of those tanks fired, there was no armor that could save him.

Quartus walked toward the stranger with reservation, still uncertain who he was or what his intention were, "I'm Quartus."

"Nice to meet you Quartus, I'm Colonel Pierce. If you are willing we would like to install a ring platform here so that we can teleport people from our ships in orbit."

_Ring platforms? Teleportation? Ships? _"You have ships here?"

"We have. We received your distress call through the gate, and although it has taken some time to assemble a fleet, we are here to help."

"Distress call?"

"Three weeks ago we received a distress call from your planet, stating you were under attack from an unknown invader. We sent a ship to check it out, and it was almost destroyed by weapons fire from the ground, the instant it entered orbit. It took us a little over three weeks to assemble a fleet large enough to be certain we can fend off any attack in space."

"I wasn't in the capital when the invasion began, and as far as I know, the gate is there. The capital is under enemy control," Quartus said, ending in a more somber tone. "I gather you know who invaded my planet?"

"We do. They call themselves the Ori."

Quartus was pensive for a moment, "The non-corporeal entities from another galaxy?"

"Yes, their followers actually, but… how do you know that?"

"One of your people, Daniel Jackson I think his name was, talked about them when he _visited _my planet a few years ago."

Pierce was about to reply when the ring platform started humming. The platform was much larger than those employed by the Jaffa or Ori. The reason why was because the Terrans wanted the ring platforms to be able to deliver vehicles as well as larger number of soldiers at once. Another advantage was that, by making the thing larger, they became incompatible with Ori ring platforms. By simply changing their size, they had assured no unwanted visitor could connect and come through them.

A bright flash of light deposited several squads of marines clad in the same exoskeleton armor as Pierce was, as well as three other people in the center. Jack, Liam and Anderson walked towards them, with their escort looking around like hawks for any threat. Only Liam wasn't wearing the exoskeleton suit, as he was wearing the Guardians' counterpart. He looked like a slightly deflated crysis looking character.

Pierce was the one to make the introductions, "Sirs, this is Quartus. Quartus, this is our High Councilor Jack O'Neill, General Anderson of our Armed Forces and this is Liam, the leader of the Guardians."

Quartus didn't know who they were, but from the sound of it, he thought these must be three very important people, "Nice to meet you."

"The pleasure is mutual, although the circumstances are not very congenial for our first meeting," Liam said.

"I couldn't agree more," Quartus replied.

It was time to stop with the pleasantries and get down to business, Jack thought. "Look Quartus, from what we were able to ascertain from orbit, you will have to move your defense line at least two hundred miles to the south if you won't to have enough time to build an appropriate defense for what is coming this way."

"Two hundred miles? We cannot do that. Many cities would be left behind," Quartus replied, not liking the suggestion.

"We know, and we don't like it either, but the Ori are moving too fast and you'll be overrun before you are finished building you tranches here," Jack said, pointing at the general direction where the defense line was being built.

"How can you be so certain we won't make it in time?"

"Because, even with our help, you want be able to succeed before more than two hundred thousand soldiers marching this way reach us, and they have rings similar to the one we just used that allows them to quickly bring whatever they need from the north. Look Quartus, we are here to help, but the Ori are not to be messed around with. Their followers are fanatics not afraid to die for their cause. We can place landmines here to slow them down while we build a proper defense further south. We can use raid attacks to slow them down even further, but if we build our defenses here, they'll have free march until they reach this position, which means they'll be here too soon."

Quartus didn't like it. He didn't like a lot of things lately, especially the fact that he was in charge. Most of the_ big heads_ had been in the capital when the Ori had first landed. They were probably all dead by now, which meant he had to take the leaderships of what he thought was more some kind of resistance than a proper army. He also didn't like the fact that he was more than certain these people who just came here were right. He saw how quickly the Ori had spread through his land, and he knew it would take maybe a few more weeks before they reached them here. Far from enough time to prepare everything for a proper and warm welcome. "Alright, we will push back another hundred and fifty miles to the south, but I'm not prepared to go any further. A little under two hundred miles from here there's our second largest city after our capital, and I want that city protected."

"That's understandable Quartus, and we agree. We must stop the Ori before that city."

Finally in agreement, the conversation continued, discussing the many logistical details that would have to follow in short order to relocate everything hundred and fifty miles to the south before starting to build the new defense line there. There was a lot of work, but the large ring platforms would greatly help in accomplishing their task. The rings were large enough that even a helicopter could land inside and be instantaneously transported elsewhere, something even the Ori could not do.

Once the discussion was finished, or more precisely, was left to Anderson to discuss the fine print, Jack and Liam took a small stroll around the Quirilian HQ.

"What do you think?" Liam asked.

"I think Quartus looks like a reasonable and competent man, which is very important if we want to work side by side with these people, especially when our allies start coming here," Jack said, knowing how too many parties all thinking in different ways can make working together difficult or even impossible.

"True. When are our allies scheduled to arrive?"

"Well, once we set up camp, we'll deploy the first wave of troops we currently have on our ships in orbit. Then, we start ferrying our allies; first the Langarans and then the Optricans and Pangarans."

"What about the Hebridians. Are they still refusing to participate?"

"Unfortunately, they are. I think they thought they would gain much more from our friendship than what they had so far. I think this is a way for them to let us know they are not happy."

"And what did they expect from your friendship exactly?"

"Access to Earth's market," Jack replied.

"Capitalists; go figure. I still think they do not understand the meaning behind the word friendships," Liam said, not liking how the Hebridians were behaving. The race was probably the most advanced human race in the galaxy if you didn't count the Terrans and the Aschen, and they could greatly help in the war against the Ori and even the Lucians and Aschen if necessary, but they had been keeping for themselves this whole time, not moving a finger to help. The Terrans had also proposed to them to train their soldiers, just like they had been doing with the Langarans and Pangarans, but they had refused categorically.

As he was slowly walking with Jack on his left, he sensed something, "Are you alright Jack?"

Jack took a deep breath, indeed looking a little pale, "It's nothing, just a headache. I get a lot of them lately. Probably every time I hear the word Ori… or Lucians… or Aschen."

"Ah well, that's understandable. Let's hope we find a satisfactory solution before more comes our way." Liam said thinking of the Vargas that he knew sooner or later would show their faces. "Still, you should take some rest. In the past month, every time I came to Earth you were awake, and I sometimes come in very strange hours."

"That's true, but that also means you are not sleeping a lot too if you are flying around the galaxy all the time."

"Ah, but that's different."

"Different how?"

"I'm Alterran."

"Meaning?"

Liam smiled, "Did you know that the planet we originally came from had a 36 hours day. Also, the Alterrans rarely sleep for more than five hours."

"Hey! That's cheating! No wonder you always look refreshed while we mere humans look like zombies."

Liam chuckled.

"By the way, why didn't you come here with your ship?"

Liam shrugged, "It's in the shop."

"Why?"

"Upgrades. William didn't want to leave the space station until he got all the new toys he wants."

"What new toys?"

"The multidimensional shield installed, fresh ZPMs, minor changes to the sensors, the gravitic drive and a self-repair system based on nanites."

Jack made a grimace, not liking the word nanites in any context.

Liam saw it, "What?"

"Nanites, still don't like them."

Liam chuckled, "You're not the only one. I could have sworn, Thor somehow sensed nanites on my ship when he came to visit a few days ago. He looked so uncomfortable, something I have never seen before."

"Well, that's understandable. Did you know he actually threatened me once saying that if we started building replicators to help us build stuff he would never speak to me again."

"He didn't!"

"Oh yeah he did, and I believed him too. I think it will take a lot more time for him to forget about the Replicators and their war."

"Not going to ever happen."

"What do you mean?"

"Asgard have perfect recall."

"Oh, that sucks… sometimes at least."

"Sometimes it does. I for one would really like to be able to forget a few things."

"You too?"

"All Alterrans have eidetic memory."

"So in essence you are like a walking recording device?"

"More or less, yes."

"Nice to know. Once we reach Earth, refresh my memory that it's laundry day today."

"I'm not _your _recording device Jack," Liam said angrily. "Now I'm stuck with the image of your laundry in my mind… for eternity."

Liam and Jack continued for another ten minutes with their little walk and talk before it was time to leave. The deployment of soldiers as well as of the many ground cannons would take time, time neither one of them wanted to spend by waiting here. They had other obligations waiting for them elsewhere. Jack had to go to Earth and check what the situation with the Jaffa was, and Liam had a project of his own he needed to attend to, but only after he got his ship back.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy - FJN Fleet  
**_Stardate:__2372.42_

They came like locusts, jumping from planet to planet, in their wake, leaving only burning flames. Nothing remained standing after they were done with a planet. Rak'nor's battle group, one of the six in total, had gone through four planets already before attending to the final battle. On two planets the Lucians had succeeded in vacating the premises before their arrival, another one had still Lucians on it but not as many as Rak'nor would have liked, at least not enough to be categorized as an engagement, and one planet proved to be at least some kind of challenge for Rak'nor's battle group. On that last planet, he had to quickly take care of two Ha'taks trying to take larger machinery that couldn't be fitted through the gate in order to take them away to some unknown location. Suffice it to say those two Ha'taks would never again transport anything.

The infrastructure on the planet below had quickly followed with a similar fate. After the Jaffa had stormed the various complexes, ranging from manufacturing facilities, storehouses and even one lonely shipyard, in the process taking as many prisoners as possible, the six Ha'taks in orbit had simply obliterated anything standing upright on the surface, the same way they had done on the other three planets before that. Rak'nor knew the Lucians were trying to take away to some unknown location whatever they could and it had been a good decision they went for smaller targets first because if they didn't the Lucians would have been able to save much of their infrastructure.

Now, Rak'nor's battle group was finally regrouping with the other five battle groups that had done a similar job of getting rid of any Lucian installation or ship. They were regrouping before the final push, the one that was going to end this war once and for all. Together, the thirty two Ha'taks entered hyperspace on a course to the last bastion of the Lucian Alliance, the planet where they had their largest industrial base, with seven shipyards, enough manufacturing capacity to fuel a small nation and probably enough Kassa to drug entire planets for years. If this place fell, the Lucian Alliance would fall with it.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy - Odai's Flagship  
**_Stardate:__2372.32_

While the fleet was en route to the Lucian controlled planet, Odai and the rest of the Lucian fleet were spending their time in orbit waiting for the inevitable confrontation that was about to ensue. They had been waiting here for days now and Odai was actually thinking of putting a bullet through his head and getting it over with for how long they had been waiting in vain. Then, he thought a little more and came to realize that maybe he should put a bullet in Lucius first.

Consequently giving Lucius a glare, Odai noticed the man flinch as if he had read his mind. Well, it wasn't that difficult to predict what he wanted to do to him since his brilliant plan with a lot of talking about probabilities, knowing how the Jaffa think and, oh yeah, Odai's favorite of course, what would be their most logical move, all went down the drain when they started getting reports of the FJN attacking all other planets except this one, the one that_ he_ told him would be their first target. And what did Lucius say about all this? About his _impeccable_ prediction on what the Jaffa plan of action would have been. He managed to say one single word –

_Interesting._

If he didn't kill him right there on the spot when he said that word, Odai thought, he never would. Still, not all was lost, not yet at least. They had managed to save many things on their other planets before the FJN swept through them and they still had their ambush ready and waiting for when the Jaffa decided to show up. If this worked and they managed to destroy their fleet, they could still call it a day, still somehow call it a victory even. The problem was that if everything else went the other way from what Lucius had predicted so far, an increasing _probability_ with each passing moment, there was no guarantee this plan would work at all. The only consolation Odai could find was that, if he died today, Lucius would die too.

* * *

**Rak'nor's Flagship**

Two light minutes from the planet, thirty plus hyperspace windows tore space open, with as many Ha'taks coming out the next instant. Inside, on the bridge of the FJN fleet flagship, Rak'nor watched from the frontal view the blue approaching marble. Although it was a nice planet to look at this wasn't what really caught his attention. His attention was caught by what was in front of the planet, where twenty seven, small as they were at such distance even when magnified, Lucian Hat'aks and even more Al'kesh were standing waiting patiently for their arrival.

"Enemy forces are numbering in 27 Ha'taks and 35 Al'kesh total, no gliders visible. I also believe several of the Ha'taks are of the first generation, the one before Anubis' upgrades," a Jaffa on the bridge informed Rak'nor.

"You believe or you are certain?" Rak'nor asked. There was no guessing in battle.

"I cannot be certain, but the lower energy levels are indicative of the ships being of older design."

Rak'nor had to agree. There was no reason why several of the present enemy Ha'taks would have a different energy pattern than others if they were of the same type. And yet, caution must guide him through his decision making process. Apparently, they were having the upper hand, especially with almost sixty percent of their ships being of the latest model, the so called Class III Ha'taks that were many times more powerful than Anubis upgraded Ha'taks. And yet, the Lucians were not looking as if they were about to flee, something that made him very nervous. "Proceed as planned."

From the entirety of the FJN fleet, half of them started moving, slowly gaining speed and pushing forward on a direct course for the planet and the enemy fleet in orbit, while the rest stayed motionless in space where they had exited hyperspace.

"The vanguard is on its way. It will take them twenty minutes to reach the planet," the same Jaffa as before instructed Rak'nor.

"Good. Keep the Lucians closely monitored. We must anticipate any move they might make."

It took almost twenty more minutes, the time for the vanguard to reach the planet, and yet, the Lucians did nothing.

"The vanguard has reached the predefined coordinates."

"Inform the fleet we are jumping in ten seconds," Rak'nor ordered.

The Jaffa did as he was ordered and in ten seconds the fleet opened countless new hyperspace windows for what was going to be a very short hyper-jump that would take them close to the enemy fleet, somewhere close but also on the opposite side of the Lucians with respect to the rest of the approaching FJN vanguard elements. The idea was simply to attack them from two sides.

Exiting hyperspace the next instant, the ships quickly pushed toward the enemy fleet while the rest was still on an approach course. Rak'nor's group was made of the latest Ha'taks and it was only logical they would start the engagement before the rest of the fleet reached the Lucians, knowing that their ships would be more than capable of keeping the Lucians at bay without incurring losses for the few minutes it would take for the rest of the fleet to reach weapons range.

Quickly reaching weapons range, all ships opened fire from the countless plasma cannons at their disposal. The Lucians immediately responded in kind from their Ha'taks while their Al'kesh needed to first turn around in order to face the enemy that had appeared behind them. Everything had been planned well and Rak'nor knew his next generation Ha'taks could take a lot of punishment, much more than what they were going to receive until the rest of the fleet got here and it engaged the enemy from the other side. And once that happened, the Lucians would really be in a difficult position.

And yet, the Lucians were not fleeing, they were not entering hyperspace even though they must have realized by now who had the superior forces in this engagement. Rak'nor didn't like it, but there was nothing else he could do, except to press forward.

* * *

**Odai's Flagship**

Aboard his flagship, Odai again was looking at Lucius with a stern glare, not particularly liking what was happening outside, "You said they would attack us through the minefield, and not from two sides!"

Lucius thought about it for a moment, "Hmm, that _is_ interesting."

Odai sighed. Lucius had just said the wrong word one too many times. "I have enough of you seeing this war as _interesting,"_ Odai said pulling his holstered gun out.

"Wha…"

It was all Lucius managed to say before his head gained a new hole and before he slumped to the floor, dead. Not only had he made many mistakes, not only was he obnoxious and full of himself, but his behavior was also not like any human Odai knew of; something that made his skin crawl every time he saw him. It was just too much, "What is happening with the rest of the Jaffa fleet?"

Another captain on board the ship was still a little shocked by the quick way Odai had dispatched of yet another captain. Although he had to admit, Odai did say he would kill two captains after the debacle with their unsanctioned attack at the Jaffa planet. Hastily, the captain decided to find out what Odai had asked of him in record time, fully aware that if he didn't, he would soon follow Lucius' faith. "The rest of the Jaffa fleet has just entered the minefield. I'm detecting multiple detonations per ship," the captain reported, waiting a little longer to see any new development. "The Jaffa Ha'taks are exploding one after the other. Only five have managed to pass through the field, probably those with improved shields."

Odai was glad to hear how a dozen enemy Ha'taks had just exploded into million pieces, but there was still another problem. Even with the loss of those twelve Ha'taks, the Jaffa were still on the advantage here and the already severely diminished number of Al'kesh as well as several of his Ha'taks having their shields already half depleted was clear indication of that fact. "Push us through the minefield. With our IFF the mines won't target us, something that couldn't be said for their ships."

* * *

**Rak'nor's Flagship**

Rak'nor watched in horror the destruction of many of his fellow Jaffa ships. A dozen Hat'aks had been destroyed in bright flashes of light. The Lucian had placed a minefield, a cloaked minefield, and half his fleet had just gone right through it with devastating results. Rak'nor was feeling rage, rage that will soon be unleashed at the cowardly Lucians. "Push forward. Leave the Al'kesh, they are of no concern, and target them only if no other targeting solution is available."

"Yes sir… Sir! The Lucians are retreating toward the minefield."

It didn't take long for Rak'nor to understand what they wanted to accomplish, "The mines must be able to recognize their IFF signal. He wants to lure us inside the minefield where his fleet won't sustain damage from the mines while our ships will," Rak'nor said more to himself that to anyone else.

And then he smiled, "Follow the Lucian fleet in the minefield."

"Sir?"

"You heard me!"

The Jaffa complied, ordering fleet-wide to follow the Lucians inside the minefield.

As they were approaching the edge of the area where they knew the cloaked minefield was, at least if the floating remains of the twelve Ha'taks were any indication, Rak'nor spoke. "Tell all ships to start sending a jamming signal on all frequencies. I want you to flood the entire subspace and normal space with it. Let's see how they ferry when the mines cannot pick up their IFF."

"Sir, for this to work, we will have to be very close to their ships," the Jaffa told Rak'nor with apparent worry.

"I know."

* * *

**Odai's Flagship**

"Odai, the Jaffa are following us into the minefield."

Odai smiled for the first time all day. It looked as if, at last, the Jaffa had returned to their true nature. Rage must be directing their actions, he was sure of it. Only rage could push you to go straight into a minefield, rage and maybe insanity. "Good! Once the mines decimate their entire fleet, we will be able to…"

"Odai, the mines are targeting us as well!"

"How is that possible?"

"The Jaffa are broadcasting a jamming signal on all frequencies. The mines are not receiving our identification codes!"

Odai didn't have time to say anything when his ship rocked violently with the frontal display letting bright light come inside the ship's bridge, consequence of the many explosions that were happening all around his ship.

* * *

**Minefield**

The two fleets entered the minefield, as they went, explosions bright as stars illuminated space all around them. Ships exploded one after the other, quickly adding to the death toll of both Lucians and Jaffa to a growing graveyard. The minefield was now littered with dozens upon dozens Ha'taks and Al'kesh all broken down to chunks ranging in size from a small fist to larger apartment-size pieces. Those few remaining ships with their shields still strong enough to survive the mines, or maybe more as a factor of luck where they had been targeted by fewer of them, exited on the other side of the minefield.

Half an hour ago, the system had almost a hundred unscathed ships floating in space. Now, only thirteen remained. Four Ha'taks from the Lucians, and nine from the FJN had managed to somehow get through the devastating minefield in on piece, and even they were not in the best of conditions. Several ships had lost their shields and hull breaches were present on many of those, with atmosphere venting into space from all sides. It didn't look as those ships, no matter on which side they belonged would be able to fight any time soon.

Still, the Jaffa had the advantage here. Enough for three Lucian ships that apparently were at least still capable of entering hyperspace in order to flee the massacre that would have most certainly followed if they had remained, leaving one of their own behind to its faith.

* * *

**Rak'nor's Flagship**

Looking around his bridge as well as getting reports from the few remaining ships, he didn't know if he could call the outcome of this battle a victory. Yes, they had won and yes, they had the planet bellow to do as they pleased, but at what cost. When he came here, he knew losses were inevitable, but he never thought it would have been so many. Rage again filled Rak'nor, thinking how there could be a possibility that the Lucians were not even responsible for this war, but somebody else, somebody who hadn't lost even a single man throughout this entire war; someone that had used the Lucians and the Jaffa as puppets, mere marionettes in a war instigated by a third party. At that moment, Rak'nor made a promise to himself that if he found out there is somebody else behind all this carnage, he would make them pay dearly for what they had done.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy - Aschen System  
**_Stardate:__2389.46_

The massive warship, the one that could almost be called Liam's home, stood under its cloak on the outer rim of the Aschen System. Liam didn't like the Aschen getting their hands on hyperdrive technology and he didn't like them having several gate addresses either, but the thing he didn't like the most was, the Aschen meddling with things. More than certain the Aschen had their own agenda and that their sudden change, as they had called it, and willingness to help the Terrans fight the Ori was nothing more than pure deception, Liam knew something had to be done. He simply couldn't stomach the Aschen for some reason. Every time he would think of them, he would get Goosebumps.

More inclined to follow the logic of preventing catastrophes rather than simply waiting for them to happen, Liam had decided an infiltration mission to find some hard evidence was in order. The first problem was the way this infiltration would have to take place. After his first visit, more than two years ago, the Aschen had stepped up their security by installing a detection grid around their planet. The grid of satellites would constantly emit lepton particles, effectively blocking any attempt to enter the atmosphere unnoticed since the sudden disappearance when the particles would hit a cloaked ship, would be indication enough someone unwanted had just passed through the grid. Thinking they are safe, the Aschen would never know there are other ways to bypass such detection system. One of those methods of course involved slipping into another dimension in which the lepton particles would simply pass through you. Another method would be to use the beaming system, but that system can be detected and again the Aschen had started emitting an interference signal that might prevent the use of the said system.

Liam moved to the hangar bay of his ship where a much smaller craft awaited his arrival. Once Liam was on board, the pilot cloaked the craft, just before maneuvering it outside the hangar and into space.

The small craft with the very useful Merlin's device on loan, exited Liam's ship, directed towards Aschen Prime. Once the ship reached the desired speed, it disengaged its engines in order to further minimize the chance of any emissions being detected by the Aschen. The vessel slowly crawled toward its destination, taking more than an hour to reach the planet. Using the gravitational force of the planet, the ship made a complete turnaround of the planet in order to slow down without the need to engage the main engines, by instead using the planet's gravity. Once in high orbit above the planet, the ship activated Merlin's useful invention slipping into another dimension. Quickly descending into the atmosphere, the small craft made its way to the capital city on the planet, a city that held more than sixty eight million people. It was so big that it was even difficult to call it a city.

Scans pinpointed the location where the craft needed to settle down on top of one of the medium sized buildings in the city's residential area. The craft reverted back to normal space-time, but still keeping its cloak active. Through the rear of the ship, under the cover of the night, a single man stepped outside. Clad in his usual deflated-looking crysis nanosuit, Liam activated his personal cloak. Several times Guardian teams had performed recon missions of the building he was currently on in a similar fashion as he was doing right now and the thing they had found out was that the building had almost no security. No matter how Liam didn't like the Aschen, he knew they had managed to eradicate any form of crime on their planet. This also meant security was almost nonexistent in residential areas, thinking there was no fear of being robbed or of something worse happening.

Cloaked, Liam moved through the only door on the roof of the building that led to a set of stairs running down to the bottom of the building. He didn't have to go that far though. His target was only seven floors below.

Taking less than five minutes, Liam reached the entrance door of the intended apartment. Here, he found the first obstacle so far. The door had a keypad. Not knowing the combination that would open the door, Liam began working on a workaround to the current problem. As he touched the keypad with his index finger, he mentally instructed the nanites in his suit to go to work. The nanites in his gloves quickly spread inside the keypad, in search for the door's release mechanism. The nanites didn't even have to find the right combination, but instead they just needed to understand what kind of electric impulse the keypad would send when the right combination was inputted and simply simulate the same impulse. Since finding out how things worked was what the nanites were born to do, it took them less than twenty seconds to accomplish that task. The electric impulse was sent and the door clicked open.

Liam stepped inside the room, still with his cloak active. The room wasn't much, maybe 20 square meters, and he knew there was only one other room, with the only door to the left being clear indication of that fact. From the living room, Liam moved inside the bedroom where he found an Aschen fast asleep in his bed. He silently approached the bed and quickly injected a substance into the man's neck. The man never woke up and now Liam was certain he wouldn't for at least another twelve hours. Finally certain that nobody could see him, Liam dropped his cloak and retracted the suit's helmet that quickly folded into his neck and shoulder. Now the fun part would begin.

Liam placed a small device on the man's forehead. He then sat on the chair standing next to the bed and leaned backwards, closing his eyes as if he was about to take a nap. It took a minute before the connection established, but when it did, memories started flowing into Liam's mind.

Ten minutes later, a little tired Liam opened his eyes again, smiling. He had what he needed. Checking the clock on the stand near the bed, he saw it was six thirty in the morning. It was time to go to phase two of the mission. Liam quickly scanned, first the man and then his clothes he found in his wardrobe. The next moment a hologram changed his appearance in that of the man still lying on the bed, but wearing a grey working outfit instead of the man's pajamas.

Using the city's public transportation system, as the man lying in bed had done every morning of his adult life, Liam made his way to a large building somewhere in the central portion of the massive Aschen city. Upon entering inside the large building, a scanner began checking his identity. This was the moment of truth, because if his suit was unable to replicate every aspect of the man he was impersonating, this entire mission would very quickly and for him very badly end. Thankfully the system beeped cheerfully before replying, "_Greetings Mister Mollem. Please step inside._"

Mollem/Liam, without a word, proceeded further down the main corridor, directed to his office. The device that allowed him to search through Mollem's memories had allowed him to see what the Aschen real intensions were, but this was something everybody already suspected with a high degree of certainty. What they needed was hard evidence and that he could only get from the man's office. Liam quickly entered Mollem's office, thankful that no one stopped him and that no one else was inside. He moved to the computer on the desk and inputted the man's access codes he had retrieved earlier from his memories. As the system granted him access, he placed yet another device in front of the computer. Data immediately started scrolling on the computer's display while the little device was systematically accessing and copying everything.

The process lasted longer than Liam thought it would, but he had finally finished his work and it was time to leave. As he exited the office, he moved quickly the same way as he came. He was about to reach the entrance doors of the building when a man stopped him.

"Where are you going?" the man asked when he saw Mollem moving toward the exit.

Liam turned looking at the man he couldn't recognize. While he had searched extensively through Mollem's memories, his goal wasn't so much to memorize all the people Mollem knew. Liam was looking for access codes and to learn Mollem's daily routine. "I'm going to the gate's location. I'm scheduled to depart today."

"I haven't been informed of any such change in schedule."

"I was informed only recently. Maybe you have a new message waiting in your office," Liam said knowing from Mollem's memories that the Aschen preferred sending messages, but he wasn't sure if this man even had an office here, since he didn't know who he was.

The man scrutinized Mollem for a few seconds before replying, "Possible, I haven't checked my inbox yet. Will you be back for our meeting tonight?"

"I will."

"See you tonight then."

"See you tonight."

As the man turned and continued toward what Liam believed was his office, Liam as well turned and walked toward the exit and without being scanned this time he stepped into the street.

The man inside the building went to his office and, as he had done every morning in the past twenty years, he accessed his computer system to check his messages. Scrolling through the messages he had received, he found there was no mention of Mollem having to leave through the stargate. Also, he was having the nagging sensation that there was something wrong with Mollem today, but he couldn't put his finger on what exactly. Being Mollem's direct superior, he should have been informed of the change in Mollem's schedule. He quickly entered another code, giving him access to Mollem's computer system. Inputting a few more commands, his display started scrolling what Mollem had accessed today. Even without emotions the man's eyes widened in shock. Mollem had accessed… everything.

Liam had just exited the last metro-train when his comm. device in his ear beeped.

"What?" Liam whispered, not wanting to be heard by anyone around him.

"_There is some strange comm. activity I'm picking up. Security forces have been ordered to go check Mollem's apartment," _The voice of the pilot came over the comm.

Looking around to see if there was somebody near him who was listening and finding no one, Liam spoke back, "I'm on my way. Be ready to take off in ten minutes."

"_Acknowledged."_

Liam quickly entered the first alley he could find. Looking around, he saw nobody was looking in his exact direction. He quickly instructed his suit to change his appearance into another Aschen that lived in the same building as did Mollem, a contingency plan they had planned for if thing didn't go exactly as planned. Once the hologram stopped shimmering, Liam returned to the main street he was before, quickly continuing on his way to Mollem's building another five hundred meters down the same street.

Once he reached the building he saw various security teams already there. He quickly stepped inside the building as if nothing of what was happening was any of his concern.

"Stop!" a man shouted the moment Liam stepped into the lobby.

"Yes?" Liam replied calmly as if he was clueless of what was happening.

The man looked at a tablet he had with the image of the man they were looking for, "Where are you going?"

"To my apartment. I live here."

Another second and the tablet scanned Liam, informing the security officer this man indeed lived here, "You can go, but the forty-seventh floor is of limit."

"I understand," Liam said, quickly moving inside the elevator and pressing the last floor of the building. Once on the top floor, he immediately entered the staircase from a door nearby. Unfortunately, as he did so, he found another security officer on the staircase that led to the roof, _'Shit!'_

The security guard stepped down the last few stairs, walking in front of Liam, "You are not allowed to be here. Go back inside."

Without saying a word, Liam moved with blinding speed, punching the man in the face. The man dropped on the floor moaning in pain and with his mouth gushing blood. Without waiting, Liam kicked the man once again in the face. Seeing the man was now definitely unconscious, he moved up the stairs that led to the roof. Slowly opening the roof door, he saw there were two more security guards on the roof and two hovering craft above them.

"Where are you?" Liam asked through his comm. unit.

"_I'm hovering three meters above the roof on the northwest corner of the building," t_he pilot replied.

"I'm going to run toward your location. Be ready to lower the rear hatch in thirty seconds."

"_Acknowledged._"

Liam disabled the hologram and quickly activated his cloak. While the two guards were looking the other way, he opened the door and started running toward the northwest corner of the building. As he was half way there, he heard the door slamming back with the two guards turning to see what made that noise. While they were looking, Liam could see the rear hatch opening three meters above the ground only because he was now able to see the inside of the small ship. He heard one of the two guards yelling, _"Hey! What's that?_" just as he jumped three meters in the air landing inside the rear of the ship.

"GO-GO!"

The pilot immediately began closing the rear hatch as he pushed the small ship to afterburner. He detected the two Aschen ships above the building doing the same, immediately pushing in hard pursuit, but it was already too late. Pressing a button on his console the ship slipped into another dimension, one in which the Aschen would never be able to find them.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**_Stardate:__2405.50_

As the small group of very important people gathered inside the room, all prepared to have their next council meeting, a bright flash of light startled most of them. Most of them because Jack just kept staring blankly in front of him completely unfazed by Liam's sudden appearance. Apparently, having witnessed hundreds of beaming as well as having been beamed even more times than that, made someone completely disregard that kind of event, even when they happened only meters from you.

"Liam, when did you come in?" Jack asked, immediately noticing the stares he was getting. "What?"

Not even bothering to reply to Jack's question, Daniel asked the next logical one, "Liam, is something wrong?"

Liam as well was gazing at Jack, not only because of his complete cluelessness about what had just happened around him, but also because this wasn't the first time Jack acted strangely. And when others think that Jack is behaving strangely more than the usual, that is a fact of some concern. Nevertheless, Liam turned to answer Daniel's question, "You can say that. I just spent a few hours on Aschen Prime."

"Aschen Prime?" Daniel asked. "What were you doing there?"

"Getting some hard evidence of what they're really doing," Liam said.

"From your tone and the fact that you are here, I gather you were able to find something," Daniel continued with the inquiry.

"I did, and it's like we suspected. The information I was able to retrieve clearly shows they are only trying to befriend Earth 'till the Ori are destroyed. After that, Earth is their next target. I also found out how they got their hands on hyperdrive technology and it wasn't from a Tel'tak."

"What was it then?" Daniel asked.

"Gerak."

"Gerak?"

"Yes. Once Gerak was certain he couldn't possibly win against the FJN, he departed in search for a human planet with a large population that he could enslave and use to rebuild his forces. Well, it looks like he had found what he was looking for, with the only problem the Aschen not of the same opinion as he was on them being enslaved."

"Oh my. He really found the right human world to try to enslave."

Liam chuckled, "Even defeated Gerak has managed to make problems for us. If he didn't venture into the Aschen system, they would still be confined to their little corner of the galaxy. Now instead, they are loose on the galaxy, thanks to him."

"That actually explains a few things. I never believed Mollem's story on how they gained hyperdrive technology and gate addresses," Daniel said.

"Yes, but there is more. The attack on the Jaffa with the Tok'ra symbiote poison was done by the Aschen."

"It wasn't the Lucians?" Daniel asked, puzzled.

"No. They just took a few Lucians and brainwashed them. It was their plan all along to start a war between the Jaffa and the Lucians."

"Of course. The Lucians and the Jaffa kill each other, we and the Ori do the same, and the Aschen then swoop what remains. Not a bad plan," Daniel concluded.

"They are sneaky…" Liam began to speak, but then he suddenly stopped, sensing something. Something was wrong. He turned to look in the direction of Jack, who suddenly looked incredibly pale. With incredible speed, almost like a blur, he quickly moved, making it just in time to grab Jack before falling completely onto the floor. Slowly settling him on the floor, Liam understood Jack had fallen unconscious.

Others in the room quickly moved around the two of them, Sam the first to ask, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know, he fell unconscious. I did sense something was wrong with him, and not only today," Liam replied.

"Now that you mentioned it, Jack did act all grumpy lately and he also complained of headaches," Daniel added.

"Yeah I asked him about it too and he said that the doctor gave him a clean bill of health," Sam added. It was obligatory for everyone on the council to go on regular checkups.

Liam thought about it for a moment, before quickly sending a mental command through his wrist device to the ship. The next instant, a small device was deposited in his hand. He quickly started scanning Jack's head, a process that lasted almost a minute. Checking the results, his expression told the others it was nothing good.

"What is it?" Daniel asked impatiently.

"It's as I have feared. In short, it appears he put his head in the Alterran Repository of Knowledge one too many times."

Sam was puzzled, "But the Asgard removed all the knowledge and he was fine."

Liam was shaking his head even before Sam finished her sentence, "The Asgard did remove the knowledge from his brain, but that's not all the device does. The device physically reroutes your neural pathways and that's something the Asgard didn't have any way of repairing. The affected neural pathways from the last time he used the repository must have slowly deteriorated."

With concern Sam asked, "Is there anything that you can do?" She knew this was something beyond their medical expertise. Their doctors didn't even detect the problem.

"Maybe, but I need to take him to my space station as soon as possible. There is not much time left."

Exchanging looks, the council quickly agreed. The next moment, Liam and Jack disappeared in a bright flash of light, with the massive ship in orbit entering hyperspace almost the same moment the transport had been completed.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**


	13. Changes

**Author's note: **Well, it is time to find out what happened to Jack and for the story to continue with its course, but first a few replies.

**Stormwolf3710: **Well, Lucius was the clear example of a logical and emotionless person, like the Aschen all are. I always thought that it would be that the downfall of Lucius, his detachment and coldness something that a man like Odai wouldn't particularly like. And when a man like Odai doesn't like somebody, well, he simply kills them.

**romanhellhound: **I always thought that there should have been more to it than the simplistic answer we got in the show that the head sucker only downloads knowledge. After all, Jack did heal Bra'tac with a simple touch and although I do believe that knowledge is power, I still think there should have been more to it than just that.

**Senrab Nomis: **Unfortunately, the sarcophagus is not capable of rearranging neural pathways. The cloning could work, but it's not it either. :) I think that even if they found out the Aschen were behind the attacks, too much blood had been spilled already, from the moment the Lucian had dropped that bomb. Well, apparently Lucius made a few too many mistakes on the prediction front. The way Odai reacted the last one he would make. The Ori spent two years preparing for this, and not only by building ships. I didn't mentioned how much time the Ori had spent on Quiril before the Terrans showed up, but they had a few weeks to set up before the Quirilians managed to unearth the gate and call the Terrans for help. Also, with the Ori having ascended knowledge, it is conceivable they would have some very fancy tech like the matter synthesizers and other stuff. they could easily have built the various components for the cannons before coming to Quiril and than assemble them on the planet and with the matter synthesizers build the rest on the planet. And of course, the cannons won't be the only thing they have up their sleeve. I always thought the ring platform could be much better utilized, just if they were a little larger.

**EvilTheLast: **Glad you were able to catch up. Each week, a new chapter is out. I wondered if somebody would notice the Mayan calendar is ending soon. Still since this story is now somewhere around the half of year 2010, there's still two more years until December 21st, 2012. Well, not for us, but for the story.

**Jackless: **I'm glad you like my tangling of several galaxy, but I really have to start untangling things or I'll get very entangled in my writing very soon, not knowing where to bang my head first. Did this make any sense?

**Thanks to my beta, and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter too.**

* * *

**Andromeda Galaxy – Space Station  
**_Stardate:__2419.27_

Inside a small medical room, in a bed, Jack lay motionless. It had been that way for almost a week now. In that time, Liam had spent every free moment checking up on him in hope he would finally wake up. Liam's greatest concern was that, if Jack didn't wake up soon, there was a good chance he never would. The sensors on the bed were telling him that there was nothing wrong with him, but still, matters of the brain are never easy and the only thing he could do was to wait. Wait and hope.

As Liam moved to exit the room, he heard a groan coming from the bed behind him. Quickly turning and checking the sensor readings, he smiled, seeing that Jack was finally coming out of the coma.

As Jack slowly opened his eyes, looking at Liam now standing next to him, Liam spoke, "It's about time. I know you have a lot of work and that you don't like paperwork, but spending an entire week in bed is a little too much, don't you think?"

"What? Where am I?" Jack replied still very much disoriented.

"You're on my space station in the Andromeda galaxy. What do you remember last?"

Jack thought hard, trying to remember, but everything was still fuzzy, "I think I was in the council's chamber. We had some kind of meeting… I think. You were there too, weren't you?"

"I was."

"What happened?"

"You fell unconscious."

"I did?" Jack said, slowly raising and sitting on the side of the bad. "Wow!"

"What is it?"

"My head doesn't hurt anymore. I had migraines for months now."

"Yes, well, that happens when you stick your head were it doesn't belong."

"What? You mean the head-sucking thingy?"

"Yes, that thingy. Do you remember what I told you on what the device does?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, the changes in the neural pathways in your brain had degenerated in the last few years and that was the reason for your headaches and why you fell unconscious."

"Oh, I thought the Asgard fixed that?"

"No, they just removed what the device downloaded into your brain, but the changes the device made were permanent."

"I didn't know that. So what now, you fixed it?"

"Not exactly," Liam said, quickly looking in another direction.

"Meaning?" Jack asked, having noticed Liam's reaction.

"Jack, you must understand that I had no basis to use to revert back your neural pathways."

"Meaning?" Jack asked again. Something was definitely not right here.

Liam sighed, "Meaning, the only option in order to save you was to change the rest of your neural pathways," Liam said with a hopeful smile.

"Ok, let's not go beating around the bush here. What does that mean?"

"It means I had to turn you into an Alterran."

"You did what?"

"Your Alterran heritage allowed me to change your genetic code, effectively turning you into one. I'm sorry, but it was the only way."

Jack stood silent for the next minute or so. Liam waited, and then waited a little more. He finally decided he couldn't wait any longer, "So, anything to say?"

"I'm thinking!"

"Oh… okay."

Jack sighed, "Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

"So, what now?"

"Well, the changes are only half through. In the next few months you'll start feeling differently, your body will somewhat change and your thought pattern will somewhat change as well."

"My body will change how?"

"Well, for a human, your age is, well… old, but for an Alterran, it's not. You should actually start looking younger and feeling younger too. Your strength inevitably will increase as well."

"How long do Alterrans live?"

"That's actually a very difficult question. We have the ability to regenerate our cells so theoretically we could live forever, but it is rare that an Alterran lives more than a few thousand years. There is a mental component to the regeneration process, somewhat like the way we have the ability to heal others, but that ability must be constantly nourished in order to work properly."

"How younger will I look?"

"Again, another difficult question. It depends on you and your mental abilities to regenerate your cells, but even without mental training in that area you should quickly revert to what you looked ten or fifteen years ago."

"Sweet!" Jack exclaimed, "Although, I don't know how the others are going to feel about it."

"That is a good question, especially since I have plans for them too."

"What kind of plans?"

"Well, as you should already be aware of, I'm very pleased with how the Terran organization has turned out to be, and to ensure it continues in the same direction I was planning on increasing the longevity of the members of the Council. Of course, other Terrans would follow shortly after. You can think of it as a reward for those who worked hard and who deserve it."

"How?"

"By advancing them the same way my brothers and sisters did with the Lanteans. Their lifespan is almost three hundred years you know. Of course, there are other changes involved, not just lifespan."

"Why not turning them into Alterrans like me?"

"Your heritage makes you unique in that regard. I can't make such a leap in their evolution, especially since the human natural evolution has changed their path away from Alterran physiology."

"Ah."

"But all this is for another day to think about. I would like for you to stay at least another week or two on the station or on Eden Prime so I can monitor your progress. Genetic manipulation is not something to take lightly, and I would like to be sure there are no side effects before you return to Earth."

"Two weeks! I already wasted one. Do you know how much paperwork I'll have when I go back home if I stay here for two more weeks?"

"Oh I think they'll be able to do your work without you for two more weeks."

"Why are you under the impression they'll do _any_ of my work while I'm here? They'll probably just pile it up on my desk and leave it there."

"Well, then think of this as two weeks of well-deserved vacation before you return to your usual work."

"That actually doesn't sound that bad. I do deserve a vacation and Eden Prime does look like the perfect place, at least from what I remember from the last time I was there. Is there any pond where I could do some fishing?"

"I'll build you one if there aren't any, and this one will have fish in it for a change."

"Sweet! When are we going?"

"We can go as soon as I'm finished with a few more tests."

"Do we have to? And… are there needles involved?"

"There are."

"But I feel fine!"

"Stop complaining."

"I don't like needles."

"I gathered that much."

"Are you even allowed to practice as a doctor?"

"…"

"Ha! That's what I thought."

"Up with your sleeve, now!"

"Dictator!"

"Baby!"

"Hey! Children instinctively know needles are evil. You just show them one and they… run away."

"…"

"Fine!"

"Good boy."

"…"

"See, it wasn't that bad."

"Says the man from the other end of the needle."

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Planet Quiril  
**_Stardate: 2438.76_

Roberts really liked his job. There was never a dull moment with the Terrans, even more exciting than when he was in the US Marine Corps. Here, instead of spending his time on a single planet he traveled the stars, meeting new and exciting races while visiting alien worlds, and from time to time even having to shoot at the occasional bad guy; the few of those who were still here to hurt them.

As he finally reached the second floor of the five story building he was in, he and his buddies started placing their equipment near one of the several windows in the room. In the past few days, they had done a lot of reconnaissance trying to get a good picture of the progress the Ori soldiers were making in their relentless advancement. The emplacement of the defense line more than fifty miles south of their current position was going smoothly, even more so than they thought it would, but the Ori were doing great progress of their own as well.

The first idea that came to them had been to place mines between the not yet finished line and the Ori advancing force. The idea was to slow them down since it stood to logic their soldiers would need to be more careful and take their time to disarm the mines or circumvent the various minefields, but apparently the Ori didn't get the memo as they had, with complete disregard for their soldiers, continued pushing forward, not bothered in the slightest by those who had stepped on the mines and perished. The only thing they did was to spread their troops a little thinner so that when the mines would activate, jumping at shoulder level, detonating and sending its hundreds of shrapnel in all directions, not too many soldiers would die. The reckless behavior he had already witnessed on Langara was apparently continuing even on this planet.

With the mines being ineffective, the Ori had progressed much faster than the Terrans had thought they would, and they were now only fifty miles from the first line where the Terran and Quirilian main force was. The Ori didn't bother with cities too much either. The brunt of their force continued their march while only a small group entered inside the cities found in their path, checking how many, if any, people remained inside. And this was also the reason why Roberts and his team were here.

Although most of the people in those cities had fled the Ori tide, many had decided to stay and defend their homes. The Quirilians were not against weapons and many of them had at least a gun or a hunting rifle at home. The consequence of this was sporadic fighting throughout the cities. At least this, in some small way, had forced the Ori to slow down or at least divert more soldiers to check the cities.

Standing close to the window, Roberts heard a few shots resounding in the distance. He thought how those shots could not have come from more than five hundred meters away.

"Boss, are we going to engage them this time or not?" one of his team members asked Roberts.

"It depends. Our main objective is to watch and report back if we see anything unusual. We will engage only if we are discovered and have no other choice… or if an opportunity to take out a few Ori followers presents itself."

"There is always opportunity boss," the same man said, more as a hopeful question to see if the corporal would change his mind. He definitely didn't like being so close to the enemy and do nothing about it.

"I meant a good opportunity Private," Roberts said. If they spotted only a few followers, there was no reason not to take them out.

"The locals are really keeping them busy," Private Philips said, still hearing shots in the distance.

"It's their planet. Of course they aren't pulling any punches, would you?" Corporal Roberts replied.

"Well, for me it doesn't have to be my planet to shoot at bad guys."

"That I figured already the last time we met them," the Corporal replied, thinking of the last engagement they had where the trigger happy Private couldn't wait to shoot at somebody. He appeared like he was having withdrawal symptoms right now for that matter. He was constantly clenching his rifle.

"I see movement sir," another member of his team said.

Moving quickly to the window, Roberts glanced at what his teammate was looking at. Not more than two hundred meters down the street, five Ori soldiers were walking, with one of them clearly being injured. Roberts looked at the expecting private next to him who wanted nothing more than to receive consent. After all, this did look like a good opportunity.

"Fine, take them out," Roberts said, he as well moving his TR-X1 rifle to aim through the window.

Twenty seconds later, after receiving the order to fire, the four members of the reconnaissance team fired, picking all five Ori soldiers in rapid succession.

Not having detected the three dozen Ori soldiers who had just turned the corner, the team found themselves in a very bad situation. These Ori had most certainly seen their comrades falling as well as from what general direction the bullets that did the deed had come from. Although the team was initially more than certain that at the least they would be able to escape, their chances gravely dropped to almost nonexistent when they saw what came in sight behind the Ori soldiers. It was something they had never before seen the Ori wield, something that definitely didn't bode well for them as the massive tank, easily dwarfing the Terran counterpart, started raising its frontal cannon.

Having seen the monstrosity raise its cannon, Private Philips wanted to yell to his teammates that maybe it would be a good thing if they started running, but he soon realized that he was alone, with the other three already on the run and yelling at him why in the hell he was still standing at the window like an idiot. Getting the cue, the private started catching up with his friends when a massive bolt from the cannon struck the left side of the building, collapsing several floors with the team inside one of them.

Fifteen minutes later, a few rocks started moving on top of the massive rubble that once was a perfectly good five story building. Slowly, Corporal Roberts pushed the few remaining boulders off of him, of course only capable because of the combat exoskeleton's strength enhancing ability, and slowly broke through to the surface. Taking in the sight around him, he quickly checked his suit's sensors to see where and in what state his teammates were. Their transmitters told Roberts that all three of them were in a ten meter radius and that they were all alive. The new suits had saved them all from the fall and from the even worse prospect of being crushed and buried alive in a very permanent manner. Roberts immediately went to work, digging above the closest of the three signals he was receiving. While he was doing so, he noticed that from another location, the farthest of the three, Private Philips had managed to dig himself out on his own. It was a good thing too, because they needed to leave the area as soon as possible.

Finally all free from the rubble, the group went quickly back to the rendezvous point where they were to be picked up by one of their raptors. The mission in a strange way ended up being a success since their primary goal was to monitor Ori forces and see if they had some new surprise they didn't have on Langara, and the massive tank definitely fell into that category. It was time to report this new threat to HQ.

* * *

**Furling Galaxy – Space  
**_Stardate: 2439.26_

Atan was sitting in his chair as it was usual for him. He was spending most of each day in this chair, something he usually did without any problem, but today this wasn't the case. The reason why he felt uncomfortable wasn't because of the chair, but rather because of the message he'd received a little over two hours ago. It had been a distress call sent from one of their warships and since his ship was the closest, he had been tasked to check it out. He had also tried to contact the ship many times over in the last two hours, but the result had always been the same. The ship hadn't responded and he knew there couldn't be many reasons for that to be the case.

"Captain, we are approaching the designated coordinates. I'm detecting three ships in the vicinity. From their configuration I would say they are N'Gati battleships sir."

N'Gati, a friendly race. The captain liked the fact that the sensors had detected them rather than the Sanarians, but the fact that the ship didn't detect their own warship was still the bigger issue for him. "Very well, drop us near the coordinates, and try to contact the N'Gati."

The ship continued its voyage until it dropped out of FTL a few light seconds from the last known coordinates from where the distress signal had originated. The three N'Gati six hundred meters long battleships were standing there without any indication of hostility or doing anything else for that matter.

The mystery of the missing Edenian ship was quickly unraveled when the sensor officer spoke next, "Sir, I'm detecting a debris field. It's our ship sir."

Pieces of the ship's hull were scattered in front of them, none of large enough to hold any survivors. The realization of the ship having been completely destroyed and the fact that there could be no survivors quickly dawned on the crew's minds. Now the only question they needed to know the answer to was - who did this?

"Captain, the N'Gati are responding to our hail," the comm. officer replied.

"On screen," the captain ordered.

The display showed the alien figure of an N'Gati, "Captain Atan I presume?"

Atan was a little startled the N'Gati who he had clearly never seen before had recognized him, but he had in the past talked to another of their race and there was a chance he had been recognized from that conversation, "I am."

"Captain Atan, I'm sorry to inform you that your ship has been destroyed by the Sanarians. Unfortunately, we came here only after we received the ship's distress call and it was already too late."

"Thank you commander. Do you have any additional information that we can use."

"Not much I'm afraid. The only thing we know for certain is that, shortly after we picked up the distress signal, we detected at least half a dozen Sanarian warships leaving this region of space. They must have engaged their cloak because we lost them more than an hour ago. Once we reached these coordinates, we checked for survivors, but I'm sorry to say this but there were none of to be found."

"Thank you anyway for your assistance, Commander."

"There is no need to thank me. It is our duty to help captain Atan," the N'Gati said, pausing for a brief moment. "Captain, you must have understood by now that the Sanarians will not stop until they destroy you all. It is in their code of honor. We are not capable of winning against the Sanarians alone, and although your ships are very powerful I believe you don't have enough of them to wage a war against them on your own either."

"What are you proposing commander?"

"We need to discuss an alliance if we want to survive. If we stand together, we can win against the Sanarians; something I can't say with any certainty if we stay apart."

Atan was thoughtful. He knew his people had the technological advantage, but the numerical advantage was definitely on the Sanarian side. From the last time they had confronted the Sanarians in the Batari system, they were able to retrieve all the data one of the Sanarian warships had on board, and it didn't look good. The Sanarian Empire was vast with many warships at their disposal. They had thousands of various ships and even though he knew they could win in any one-on-one engagement, the Sanarian might was in their numbers. "Commander, I am not authorized to discuss such an Alliance, but I do have the authority to officially invite you to our colony where you can send your representatives. There, you can discuss a possible alliance with our leader."

"Thank you captain. That would be agreeable to us. Do you need anything more from us? We were on our way to one of our worlds and we shouldn't delay our mission any longer."

"No commander, you can continue with your previous mission, and thank you again for what you've tried to do here."

"As I said captain, it is our duty to help."

The conversation was severed, with the N'Gati warships leaving shortly after. Atan ordered the crew to start scanning the debris field for anything that could better explain what had happened here. The Sanarian must have had an overwhelming fleet in order to destroy one of their warships. Unfortunately, little remained to give them such answer. Even the distress beacon and the black box were missing, probably having been destroyed or taken by the Sanarians. After half an hour of extensive scanning, Atan ordered the ship to leave this place on a course for home. If the Sanarians were increasing their presence in search for them, a ship like the Intrepid wasn't suited to wonder around alone, especially if one of their warships wasn't enough.

* * *

**Senari Galaxy – Senari Latest Colony  
**_Stardate: 2442.36_

It had been a full month since Liam had released the nanites on the inhabitants of the small Senari colony on the planet below. They were testing to see how long it takes for the Vargas neural implant to stop influencing the Senari people. During that time, they had on many occasions abducted people from the planet while they were asleep in order to perform scans on as many subjects as they possibly could. They would then return them back to the planet before they even woke up. So far, the scans had showed all tested Senari had been infected by the nanites and in all the subjects the small but very useful devices had been able to block the implant from influencing them. And yet, only recently had the people on the ground started showing signs of change.

The first signs had been noticed when people started talking about how their race was spending so much time and effort to wage wars with far distant races. It was strange to them because, until now, no one ever questioned the wars, those that apparently they had been fighting for the past tens of thousands of years. Soon, from a sporadic occurrence, the Senari started gathering, sometimes even in larger groups, in order to talk about the various wars. And inevitably they'd started asking one very important question.

- Why haven't we talked about this ever before?

It seemed as a very important topic to be discussed and there was no reason why they shouldn't have. Then, they'd started asking the next important question.

- Why did the war start?

Nobody knew the answer to that question either and panic was slowly but surely starting to creep inside their minds. What have they been doing for so long? How could they kill so many, how could they commit genocide on countless races and how could they do something like that without even knowing why? Many questions had been cast inside the small community, but no one knew the answer to any of them. And not knowing was the worst part of all.

It was then that Mial came down on the planet's surface and entered one of the largest discussions he could find. He slowly approached the center where he found many eyes looking his way, all wanting to know who he was. He would patiently start explaining, explaining the hard reality of the last hundred thousand years in which time the Senari had served as slaves for a race that had used them for their own agenda still unknown to even him or anyone else. The people listened intently the words Mial spoke, terrified and angered at what had happened to them. Questions had inevitably been asked, with Mial answering them as best as he could.

This practice continued for many days, Mial coming and going each day, every time giving the Senari on the planet one more piece of the puzzle. Mial had quickly understood that rage was the predominant emotion amongst the colonists. It was understandable and yet Mial needed to calm the colonists down. It still wasn't the time to rush into action. There were still many planets that needed to be infected by the nanites before they could openly act. With the last words of comfort, trying to persuade the people on the ground that there is a solution for their predicament, but that they must be patient, Mial left the planet for the last time. With one of the Guardian battleships waiting in orbit, he would go to the most populated planets in the Senari domain and, under the ship's cloak, he would spread the nanites. It was time for the Senari people to awake from the hundred thousand years long nightmare.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania****  
**_Stardate: 2448.76_

Inside one of the many conference rooms on the Terran island, Jack, Klaus, Sam, Daniel, Teal'c and Bra'tac were discussing a few discoveries that might have grave repercussions for the inhabitants of the Milky Way Galaxy. Jack was just in the process of informing the Jaffa of Liam's recent discovery.

"Three weeks ago, Liam went on a mission of intelligence gathering on Aschen Prime, the Aschen homeworld, and there he found something that could change many things. Among the data that he was able to retrieve there was… WHAT!?"

The other five people, having the whole time kept staring at Jack, quickly shifted their gaze to look somewhere else, many at the floor, others at the ceiling and some looking at the first object in the room that wasn't Jack.

"O'Neill, I believe your… new appearance is disruptive for this meeting," Teal'c replied after seeing that nobody else would.

Jack sighed, "Well, there is nothing I can do about it T, isn't it?"

"I was merely stating a fact O'Neill. You looking the same age as Daniel is… disturbing," Teal'c replied, keeping his calm composure.

"That's an understatement," Sam murmured.

"What was that?" Jack asked Sam, having heard something, but not knowing exactly what.

"Nothing."

"Teal'c, I'm not looking as young as Daniel… am I?"

"You are," Teal'c replied simply.

It was true, and Jack knew it. He had changed a lot in the past three weeks. He was even losing his gray hair, slowly returning of his previous brown color from the roots up. He was also feeling much better body-wise, with his knee not bothering him that much. Actually, if he thought about it a little more, the knee wasn't bothering him at all, not anymore. The last two weeks he had felt something that he had only felt when he had aged rapidly on the alien planet with those damn nanites in mere days turning him into an old man and feeling his body losing strength at a frightening pace. Now it was the same just in reverse. The two weeks on Eden Prime, fitting name as it was like spending a vacation in paradise, he had spent working hard to regain his strength while making countless tests that involved a lot of needles and other to him unimportant scans. Still, the best part of the vacation was, spending a good portion of it fishing and drinking beer. Afterwards, he had felt better than he had ever felt in his entire life, mostly because of the physical changes his body was going through, but also because it was one of the best vacations ever and the people on the planet were, well, suffice it to say, if there wasn't an Earth waiting for him, he knew what his second choice would be, planet-wise.

The time on the planet had also, in many ways, been productive. Liam had spent that time with him, at least most of the time, when he didn't have to fly to the space station because something important would have come up. In that time, the two of them had spent discussing many things, mostly related to the trouble they were having with the Ori, Senari, Wraith and inevitably the trouble they were going to have with the Vargas. Jack had listened to the many ideas and doubts Liam was having, mostly about the Ori. Neither of them knew what the end game was going to be and that worried them greatly. Not knowing how to fight back was something neither of them particularly liked and they knew that, if a solution wasn't found soon, the Ori would sooner or later win the war. They needed to find a way to fight the Ori, and even what Liam told him about the barrier he had been able to create and that can block ascended beings from passing through it wasn't anything conclusive. The second discovery he had made and that still hadn't been tested was a device Merlin was working on that could supposedly disperse the energy matrix of ascended beings, effectively killing them, but even that invention didn't inspire confidence as Liam had informed him that, even if the device worked, his radius was maybe a few light-years tops, which meant they couldn't use it as a doomsday weapon with which they could kill all Ori. Jack said that in his opinion, the barrier could prove useful if they could protect their ships from ascended beings, allowing them to take the fight to the Ori, but even if they could, they didn't have a way to get there since they would need the activation codes for the Ori supergate and they still didn't have those.

Jack had finished his vacation on Eden and had returned home to Terrania, only to be welcomed as a leper from the moment he had stepped back on Earth's soil. Of course, he knew there would be stares and questions, quickly followed by more stares, but this was becoming ridiculous, disruptive too as Teal'c had suggested. He had explained what had happened to him, or more exactly what Liam had done to him in order to save his life and he'd started to think they had all accepted that fact as an inevitability and that they would soon move on, but it had been days and the stares had not subsided one iota.

"Look, can you at least stop staring at me when we have an important meeting. You can continue staring afterwards, okay?"

"Oh come on Jack, put yourself in our shoes. We are here looking at you, looking young like… the first day we met. It will take some time to get used to the change," Daniel said.

"That's an understatement," Sam murmured again.

Jack this time only stared at her without saying anything. He decided it was better to get the meeting moving or they would remain here the entire day. "I know Daniel, that's why I said you can continue staring at me _after _we end this meeting. Is that okay?"

"This is acceptable O'Neill. We will continue staring at you after the meeting," Teal'c said, impassive as always.

"Thank you Teal'c… I think," Jack replied, giving Teal'c a confused look. "Now, I've started talking about what Liam managed to gather with his little recon mission. Teal'c, there is no easy way to say it, but you were wrong on who attacked your planets with the Tok'ra symbiote poison. The Aschen orchestrated the whole thing."

Only to those very close to Teal'c, those who had learned to read the almost nonexistent changes in his facial expressions knew that he was actually fuming inside. He was probably imagining how he was snapping Mollem or any other Aschen's neck he knew.

"During the war, we have taken many Lucian prisoners and there have been indications the Lucians were not behind the first attack. Many have begun questioning if the three Lucians who attacked our planet with the symbiote poison did so by orders from their leaders or if they were brainwashed in simply believing so."

"So you knew something wasn't right?" Jack asked.

"We did, but it was already too late. Even if we had undeniable proof, the Lucians have attacked too many planets and killed too many Jaffa to stop the war. The Jaffa would have revolted if we did."

"How are things now? With the war I mean?" Daniel asked.

"There is no war. After the last battle where we decimated the Lucian fleet, we have not seen or heard from them ever since. We believe they went into hiding."

"I heard you've lost many ships in that battle. I'm sorry to hear that," Daniel replied.

Teal'c simply bowed to Daniel's statement, before continuing. "The Lucians had prepared an ambush with cloaked mines of great power, more powerful than what we could have produced," Teal'c said, with apparent dislike of that fact.

Jack picked up immediately. "So, you are asking yourself where the Lucians gained such technology since the most advanced stuff they should have is from what they've managed to scavenge from the Goa'uld. And we know the Goa'uld didn't have cloaked mines."

"I am," Teal'c replied simply.

"Well, I think we now know the answer to that question. The Aschen must have helped," Klaus stepped in.

"I talked about this with Liam and he believes their plan was to simply start wars among the different factions in the Milky Way, namely the Jaffa and the Lucians and eventually us and the Ori. This way, they could stay on the sideline while we kill each other. It was a nice plan."

Teal'c agreed. It was a good plan, but he was also perplexed for another reason. "The Free Jaffa Nation is currently not in the condition to wage war against the Aschen. We have sustained great losses during this war and it will take time to rebuild."

Klaus was thoughtful. "If I may say something, I believe now is not the time for anyone to go after the Aschen, especially now that the Ori are back and on the offensive. I believe Quiril is only the beginning and that we haven't seen anything yet. This time I believe the Ori have come much better prepared, and a war with the Aschen is the last thing we need right now."

Teal'c didn't like having to sit back and wait, but the situation wasn't such that they could easily go after the Aschen, not in their current condition. "But we cannot let them continue with what they have been doing. They could still manipulate the Lucians and who knows what other races into waging war against us while they stay at home and simply watch us kill each other."

"That's true, but the situation warrants we proceed in exactly this manner. Although, I do believe we need to end the war between the Lucians and the FJN as soon as possible." Klaus said.

"The Lucians are beaten. They do not pose any threat to us at the moment," Teal'c replied.

"Do not underestimate the Lucians. They are now like a wounded animal, and that means they could resort to using desperate tactics, something we don't want to see happening," Klaus explained his concern.

Teal'c understood what Klaus was trying to say. If the Lucians were cornered, they could start using despicable tactics, even more than what they had done so far, and with the ability to build bombs as powerful as the mines they had used, it meant they could start bombing civilians. "What is your suggestion?"

"Well, from experience I know that the fastest way to stop any kind of dispute is if the two parties involved find some common ground. In your case, I believe the Lucians would be very interested in knowing who's behind this war. After all, they have been manipulated by a third party. If we give them that information, let's say we arrange a meeting on neutral ground and we give them the information that the Aschen are behind this, and if we add the fact that the Lucians are backed into a corner and they are not capable of continuing this war any longer, I don't see why they wouldn't agree to an armistice."

Jack thought about it and he did believe this could end the war, but there was another problem here. "We must assume the Lucian Alliance has been infiltrated by the Aschen and the last thing we need right now is letting the Aschen know that we know what they are doing."

"It's true, we must proceed with caution here, but we know one person who's not an Aschen for certain. Somebody we have already met before the Aschen gained access to the gate network or the ability to travel through hyperspace. Coincidentally that person is the current leader of the Lucians," Klaus said.

"You mean we need to arrange a meeting with Odai and him alone? How are we going to do that?" Jack asked.

"And can we be certain that he doesn't work with the Aschen willingly? How do we know the Lucians haven't allied themselves with the Aschen instead of simply having been infiltrated?" Daniel added.

"I don't believe this to be the case, and even if it is, we have devices that can tell us if somebody has been brainwashed or if he is willingly working with the Aschen. In all this, I think the only problem is to get to Odai," Klaus said.

"And how do you propose we meet with the man?" Jack asked.

"I have an extensive network of informants in this galaxy and I'm certain it won't be too difficult to spread the word the Terrans want to meet with him on a neutral location to discuss the war with the Jaffa and a possible armistice. Odai knows his situation is precarious at best and that if we want, we could now easily dismantle the entire Lucian Alliance," Klaus said.

"Are we certain that, even with the problems we are having, that isn't the best thing to do in any case? I mean, we wouldn't' have to divert too many resources to fight the Lucian Alliance in their current state, would we?" Daniel asked.

Klaus was shaking his head, "No because it is futile. There will always be some criminal organization. If we take out the Lucians, another group will surface in mere months, I can guarantee it. Actually, I believe that the current situation, the way the Lucian Alliance is now all beaten up, is the best we can hope for. I can bet that there are already many new criminal organizations forming around the galaxy that will soon try to take control from the Lucians now that they have been weakened. The Lucians even without having to wage a war against us or the FJN will have their hands full to stay afloat."

"You're actually suggesting we keep the Lucian Alliance alive to fight other criminal enterprises that would otherwise inevitably emerge from their complete demise. That's actually not a bad idea. They are currently all beaten up; we could easily control them so they wouldn't be able to become as powerful as they were ever again," Jack concluded.

"Exactly my point. Now the only point we need to iron out is how to contact them and if the FJN is prepared to agree to an armistice at all," Klaus said, turning to look at Teal'c.

Teal'c remained immobile, thinking on how the Jaffa would feel about all this and also what ironing has anything to do with the current discussion. "I believe that with this new information, and in order to prevent any suicide attacks from the Lucians, the council would be willing to sign a ceasefire."

"Good, the contacting part you can leave it to me. I suggest you make sure the council is on board with this before we send the message to the Lucians that we want to meet," Klaus said.

Teal'c and Bra'tac both nodded, only minutes later leaving the conference room to go back to Dakara. The rest of the people in the room on the other hand had other things to discuss, mostly the various engagements they were preparing on Quiril, the strange alien race in the Pegasus galaxy that had tried to take control of Babylon One, the Terrans' little pet project of uniting the various races in that galaxy, and of course the strange meeting the Daedalus had with a new race and with what they were more than certain are the descendants of the Mayans.

"So, what are we going to do with the Ti'kal and the Leptinians?" Jack said.

"The Leptinians are in another galaxy where we don't have any asset. Do we need to get involved in that war too?" Klaus asked.

"I think we do, if not because of the Ti'kal asking for our help, then because I'm more than certain the Ti'kal and the Furling are somehow connected, which means the beacon the Guardians are looking for is probably somewhere in that galaxy," Daniel said.

"Good point Daniel. I discussed this with Liam and he as well sees the connection there. He is already preparing to send a sizeable force, but even they have the same problem as we do. Our ships are not meant to fight the Leptinians. This is why Liam is asking us to send the SC-310 there. Our super carrier is the only ship that is equipped to fight a large engagement with the Leptinians and come out victorious," Jack said.

"Are you planning to send the SC alone?" Klaus asked.

"No. I'm planning to form a new battle group comprised of the SC-310, two AC-309s and as many of the new AF-307s as we can send, I think maybe a dozen of them. Those ships are the best suited to fight the Leptinians. All ships are already being refitted to take as many drones as they can and, combined with the amount of turrets they have on their hulls, I think we can make the difference there. Plus the SC can make the trip from the Milky Way galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud in less than an hour if our ships need more drones or more munition for their railguns."

"I don't see why not. Those ships are not equipped to fight the Ori toilets or the Wraith hives anyway," Klaus said.

"Alright, I'm going to the Tikal's homeworld today, so I'm going to give them the good news. Let's now see what problems we have in the Pegasus Galaxy," Jack said, again looking at Klaus.

"The information our recon teams retrieved from the Wraith outpost is concerning, there is no better way to put it. The research they were doing indicates they are improving their current technology and it could also indicate they are attempting to create a hive stronger than what they had so far but also capable of longer voyages, maybe even enough to reach us here," Klaus answered.

"Even if that is true, wouldn't it take them a ludicrous amount of time to reach us here?" Daniel asked.

"Not exactly. Even our interstellar hyperdrives, the one we are giving to the Tollans can theoretically cross the void between galaxies in less than a year, maybe six months with adequate power generation. This means that even the Wraith could succeed in producing a ship that can achieve such speed. The problem so far was that they needed to drop out of hyperspace very often in order for their hull to regenerate. If they have managed to create a hull that's more resistant to hyperspace radiation and if they now have the ability to clone humans on their new type of ships, we can assume they can cross the void between galaxies in somewhere between six months to a year."

"That's not good," Jack stated, not liking the idea of adding the Wraith to the troubles they were already having in this galaxy. "Where are we with our probes?"

"We and the Guardians have been spreading them across both the Pegasus and Milky Way galaxy for the past six months and many have already started sending telemetry from their designated systems. In a few more months we will have almost forty percent coverage of systems that hold at least one M class planet. Since even the Wraith need to breath air it stands to logic their base or bases of operation are on one of these planets. Complete coverage will be achieved somewhere in less than a year."

"Which means there is a good chance the Wraith will be long gone before we find them," Jack stated.

"Unfortunately yes, but we hope we won't have to cover every single planet before we find them. That would be really bad luck."

"Let's hope then. I have received troubling news from Quiril too."

"What troubling news?" Daniel asked.

"Several recon teams have witnessed firsthand the Ori having some new type of tank that apparently dwarfs ours by a great margin. And who knows what else they have in store."

"I don't get it?" Sam said puzzled. "If, as you say, they have some new kind of vehicle that is much larger than ours, that means they can't transport the thing through the gate. The reason why we designed our tanks slightly smaller than the Abrams is because we wanted them to be able to go through the stargate."

"Maybe they are assembling them on the other side after they bring them in pieces?" Daniel added.

"It's possible, but that plays in our favor. It means they can't have many of them. The logistics of hauling parts through the gate and then piecing them together must be a nightmare," Sam said.

"Maybe, but I'm still worried what these tanks can do. I wouldn't want to find out it takes a plasma beam strike from orbit to destroy it," Jack added.

"That's true. If our weapons are ineffective against them, it won't matter how many of them they have," Klaus added to the conversation. "When are the Ori going to reach the defense line we are building?"

"Two weeks tops," Jack added.

"Well, we will have to come up with something to stop them until then, or we'll be in trouble."

"Alright, I'll think about something to even the odds, but for now there is nothing more we can do on Quiril than wait. All our troops, including the soldiers from our allies are now on the planet and the defense line is almost ready for a warm welcome. Let's hope it will be enough, especially since defending our position is only the beginning." Jack said. "Do we have anything else to discuss?"

Everybody shook their head, not having anything else to add. Slowly getting up, they began emptying the conference room, with Daniel, Sam and Jack being the last to leave.

"Are we going to eat something?" Jack asked the other two people present.

"Sure," Sam replied.

"Fine by me. This way we can continue staring at you," Daniel said.

"For how long do you predict this will go on?" Jack asked Daniel with a stern look.

"I'm not sure. I think two or three more weeks," Daniel replied.

"Daniel, you know I will hold you to that estimate. If you continue with the staring after that, I'll start getting pissed."

"Oh, come on! You're twenty years younger. You can take a few stares for that."

"Daniel, I'm not twenty years younger, I'm the same age as ever. I just look younger."

"Fine, you'll have twenty more years to live, same thing."

"Actually, if what Liam said is true, I'll have a few thousand more years to live."

At that point, both Sam and Daniel stopped walking while Jack continued his walk with a smile plastered all over his face.

"Did I hear it wrong or did he just say he has a few thousand more years?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I think he did."

Sam sighed, looking at the ceiling, "Give me strength."

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Asura  
**_Stardate:2451.91_

After the earful John had received from Jack, immediately after the sudden invasion of their space station from the grey alien race, he had started searching for them. The problem was that the race had completely dropped from the face of the entire galaxy.

Before the incident, the race had been spotted sporadically here and there, sometimes on a planet, sometimes one of their ships exiting hyperspace, but now, there simply wasn't any trace of them. John had ordered an extensive search of the many planets they could be hiding on, searching even the one where they had met the race for the first time, but so far, no clues of their whereabouts had been found.

John didn't like it. He blamed himself for what had happened. Jack had been harsh with him, maybe even too harsh as Elizabeth had stated, but John didn't think the same way. It was reckless on his part to not check at least from what rock the race had come from. Elizabeth stated that he had tried to find out, but the race had refused to tell them; something that should have warned John that something wasn't right. But, at the time, he didn't have the time to check it more thoroughly and, yes, it was true that if they went checking all races so closely the number of races on the station, those willing to start the slow process of forming a sort of federation where equality and trust were paramount, wouldn't show their faces ever again. Elizabeth was a diplomat that knew thorough checks were usually construed as mistrust, something they didn't want to have at the mere beginning of what they were trying to build. And yet, John was always the first who would blame himself if things didn't go as they'd planned for them to go.

"John, stop blaming yourself. Nobody could have known what the aliens were planning to do."

"It is my job to know 'lisbeth, and it is my job to keep people safe."

"Look, even Jack came back and apologized to you on how harsh he'd been with this whole thing," Elizabeth said.

"He didn't have to apologize. He was right. I was supposed to check them more thoroughly," John retorted.

"Oh come on. You know as well as I do that Jack said those things because of the problems he was having with what that head sucking thingy had done to him. Everyone who had a meeting with him in the last few months said that he behaved all grumpy and with a very short fuse. Ask Senator Strom. He almost punched the man in the oval office."

"He told you about that?" Shepard asked, puzzled Jack told Weir about that particular incident.

"Told me? He bragged about it!" Weir responded.

"It doesn't matter. It doesn't change the fact that we knew so little about the alien race when they orchestrated the entire thing."

Elizabeth was about to say something back when Rodney stormed inside the room.

"I have something."

"You have what Rodney?" John asked.

"You know how we've spent the last half a year deploying probes all throughout the galaxy in search for the Wraith?"

"Yes, and?"

"Well, I was able to tweak the satellite network so that it doesn't only serve to scan planetary systems, but also to constantly monitor hyperspace around them. And with tens of thousands of them we and the guardians have spread around, we are now able to monitor a good portion of the Pegasus galaxy."

"Rodney, who did you ask permission to work on the satellite network?" Elizabeth asked.

Rodney looked stunned, "I had to ask permission?"

"Rodney! The guardians have given us complete access to the network so that we can constantly receive updates, but you can't go around changing things without telling someone you are doing them."

"Oh, lighten up! I didn't screw up anything. I actually improved things."

"That would be a first."

"Ha-ha, very funny. Do you want me to continue explaining what I've found or not?"

"Fine Rodney, but after that you're going to write a very nice an extensive report of what you did and send it to the guardians."

"No good deed goes unpunished, does it? Anyway, the probe's grid was able to pick up a hyperspace window with the same signature as the one the alien ship made the first time you met them. Does that help?"

"It does Rodney, thank you."

"Good, here are the coordinates. I now have to go and write an _extensive _report."

"Rodney," Weir said stopping him in his track.

"Yeah."

"Good job."

Rodney nodded just before leaving the room.

"I'll send six frigates to check that area."

"Six? Can we send so many just for this?"

"Yeah. Since we stopped building the BC-304s completely, we've been producing frigates at an increased rate. It takes only a month for a shipyard to cram up a frigate, and if we build them sequentially, a shipyard can work on more than one at the same time."

"John would you please tell me why are we building warships like they are cars?" Weir asked while picturing a car factory with its production line, just instead of cars, warships would come out on the other side. "We barely have the officers to man them when they come out of the line."

"I don't know what to tell you. Switching from BC-304 production to the SF-308s and AF-307s was a smart move because the ships need a much smaller crew and it takes less time and materials to build them. It is also a waste to use a BC-304 for patrol duty."

Elizabeth looked at John and she had the slight feeling he was telling her all this just to make her shut up, "John, I can sense you are holding something back."

John sighed. He knew she wouldn't let the matter drop now, "Look. It's just a theory of mine. Nobody told me anything, just like they didn't tell you anything."

"Spit it out."

"I don't think that what I just told you, the official reason they told me why they switched to building frigates, is the real reason. I think that they did it to use up less materials and resources than what would be needed if they had continued building the 304s."

"That doesn't make any sense. We have Naquadah from the meteor in orbit around Earth and we have who knows how many Trinium mines not in one but in two galaxies. I don't think we have a shortage of resources."

"Maybe we have, especially since I heard all shipyards on Tollana and Terra Nova are building the BB-305s and the DN-306s. Add the three shipyards here that are doing the same…"

"And you quickly find where all the resources are funneled, Weir replied absentmindedly, thinking on how for each of the DN-306s millions of metric tons of material were necessary. "John, that's seventeen shipyards dedicated to building the most powerful warships we know how to build, and don't tell me that it is because of the Ori, because you and me both know the 306 is overkill when they are concerned."

"I told you what I know, and yes, I also don't understand what the council is doing, but I trust that maybe they do."

"I can bet Jack is behind this. He wants his toys."

"That's not it Elizabeth and you know it. Even if Jack wanted his toys, the council has nine members and Jack and Sam are the only ones who came from the military. You know Daniel and you personally know Lisa Giacomini. Do you think they would have signed up on this if it was simply Jack's wish to have big honking spaceships?"

Elizabeth had to admit it. Except for Jack, Sam and maybe Klaus, the others would never agree to build so many ships if there wasn't the need for them. Paul must be struggling with his department to keep up with such demands for resources, and he would have never agreed to something like this if there wasn't a good reason behind it. "Then why?"

"I told you already. I… don't… know!"

"Fine! This time I believe you!"

"Well, it was about time!"

"Why are you yelling at me?"

"I don't know! Why are you yelling at me?"

"It's because I really don't get you military type and your fascination with big spaceships," Weir replied frustrated.

John simply stood there looking at her with an eyebrow raised.

"Oh, you know what I mean."

"…"

"Oh, shut up!" Elizabeth said, getting up and storming out of the conference room.

"Are we done here?" John yelled, looking how she exited the room without even turning once. "I guess we are."

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**


	14. Enemies On The Horizon

**Author's note: Well, here's a very long chapter. Although, almost 2.000 words of this chapter is devoted to replying to very long reviews. Don't worry, I'm not complaining, just stating a fact. Actually, Epi's review is a very good recap of everything that's going on in this story. This way I don't have to make one :)**

**Apocalypse24: **The stardate system I explained at the beginning of the first chapter. It is based on the startrek stardate system with the difference that while in startrek stardate zero is January 1, 2323, in my story it is January 1, 2008 the beginning of the year when the Second Great Alliance has been formed. So, if you use a stardate calculator on the internet, just substract 315 years after you get the result. Also, you actually need to only know that a 1000 means a year, which should give you a pretty close result even without a calculator. This way the first stardate in this chapter would give you almost two and a half years after January 1, 2008.

As enemies go, you can look at the last review from Epi. He gave a pretty good recap of what is happening and where and who is involved. There are only two races that can make confusion. The Senari, the race that has been enslaved by the Vargas and the one Liam is trying to help, and the Sanarians, a race in the Furling galaxy the Edenian expediation is fighting. Seriously, just read the last review from Epi and you'll know who's who.

**Jackless:** Well, you know how it goes. I'll untangle everything until the end of this book, and then entangle more at the beginning of the next one. There is still a third book after this one.

**Guest:** Glad you like it. As far as surprises go, way ahead of you. There will be something similar as what you mentioned in the future, I'm just spreading new discoveries throughout the entire trilogy. You know, I simply don't want to give everything now and then having nothing new to show for in the third book or later in this one. I already mentioned the fighter drones, which are only the beginning, I promise.

**Epi: **Wow! I'm actually redirecting people to your post if they don't know what's happening in which galaxy :) You got the N'Gati/Sanarian problem perfectly.

As far as the Senari go, well, there's no chance a mess like that will go smoothly by simply giving them the nanites and then they all live happily ever after. Not gonna happen.

They will come up with some new weapons to fight the Leptinians, that's for sure. If they don't they will inevitably lose. Nuclear weapons are always the perfect weapon to kill a lot of smaller targets at once, but the Leptinians are smart. Sooner or later they will understand that if they keep their fighters all together they will get targeted with big bombs.

Maybe it is optimistic or maybe it isn't. In the show a Wraith hive was capable of reaching Earth in days because of a ZPM even without changing its hyperdrive. So, if they are capable of augmenting their power generation on ships, plus the ability to travel through hyperspace for longer periods of time, I think six months to a year is not that farfetched. I'll try to write more about babylon one, but with so many places, sides, races, characters everywhere I really don't know where to bang my head first.

You know how it goes. You fight with a member of your family over some stupid reason, but when somebody else threatens your family you quickly get over it and together face the external threat. In the same way the insurgents on Quiril don't like their government for some reason, but when their people are threatened by some outsider, well...

The Hebridian problem is more in the fact that they see everything as a business. You know, capitalists to the core, what can you do. And since the Terrans are not giving them direct access to Earth's market, they are not happy. Still, no matter what their goals are, the Hebridians know what the Aschen's end goal is, so not the friendly neighborly type you would chose to exploit.

Improvements will come for the Jaffa a little later. An alliance between the Jaffa and Lucian won't. An armistice is the most they can hope right now.

Uh! This was a very long reply. I'm tired.

**Senrab Nomis:** Evolution is the process in which, through natural selection, those more adapted to live in a certain environment have a greater chance of reproducing and of survival. This means that changes in the environment inevitably must change our evolution. It is fanny to think that with more technology at our disposal, our evolutionary path will change as well. Some people think that in the distant future we will look like some blobs with very thin legs and arms since we won't need them anymore. Our thumbs will probably change too so we can better play playstation or xbox. I always wanted for the Terrans to be a separate race. It all started as an organization, but eventually the plan is for every human on Earth to become a Terran. A distant goal though.

You're right. The Ori have more to offer. Also some vary unsporting tactics up their sleeve.

The Senari must be freed from the hundred thousand years long enslavement, but thinking that everything will go smoothly is very, _very_ optimistic; too optimistic I would say.

Well, no grey aliens in this chapter, but soon. I already know where I'm going with them, and I think that there's no story out there with the grey aliens the same way as i envisioned them, but i can't be sure.

**StargateFFWriter:** It is always a problem when you come across a race that the show didn't name it, and calling them People from P something dash something else isn't very practical. I'm glad you like the humor between the two main characters. In the beginning I planned for Liam to be a very serious character as all Alterrans sounded like in the show, but then I thought why in hell an advanced and ancient race should a priory means a complete lack of humor. Should they not make jokes and laugh the same as other races? As for your story goes, I'll delve into it the first few hours I'm free from work. Recently my writing has suffered too because of it. The moment I catch up with your story I'll PM you so you can send me what you wrote next.

**deamoneyes: **Unfortunately it does seems that people need the old carrot and stick system in order to be a little less selfish. Ah well, as the Nox would say, they are still young, and the young don't always do what they are told.

When the Aschen are concerned, having a personality and lacking in empathy and other emotions in general is not the same. After all, Spock had a very distinct personality even though he was a very logical character. It always reminded me of Teal'c. Maybe because of the raised eyebrow.

Jack will soon become two dimensional, just wait and you'll see.

Having a lot of things going at the same time is a big problem. You constantly need to switch context and you have many main characters you need to elaborate, which is very difficult to elaborate all of them in an epic story. They say, the more epic the story, the less personal development you have. You have a problem here too, since you mentioned that you rather wait for a few chapters to get out before reading them so that you don't go crazy while waiting. If I make shorter chapters, more focused on one point of view, the result would be you having to wait for even longer for the same amount of written pages. Also, even with 10.000 words long chapters, the second book will have more than 30 chapters, which means it will go for more than six months. After six months, _I_ don't know what I wrote at the beginning, much less can I expect readers to remember what they read six months ago. That said, well, the only thing I can promise is that I'll try to make one galaxy the main topic of a chapter, but no guarantees, alright?

There will be more interaction between Sam and Jack soon, but there will be another problem arising that will make their involvement... a challenge. You'll see in five more chapters.

There will be some shocking/strange things happening soon, but the real shocking part is left for book number three.

**EvilTheLast:** Jack was always smart, now even more, but he's still old Jack. The same one that has a big problem with concentration when boring scientific stuff are the main topic of the conversation.

**Thanks to my beta, and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well.**

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Dakara  
**_Stardate:2461.91_

Jack and Liam beamed down on the surface of Dakara, in front of the largest building on the planet. Bra'tac and Teal'c had been awaiting their arrival for quite some time now. As Jack and Teal'c shook hands in the usual Jaffa style, Bra'tac walked in front of Liam. It was the first time the old Jaffa master met Liam face to face.

As Bra'tac stopped in front of him, he bowed in respect, "It is an honor to meet you Ancestor Liam."

On the other hand, Liam felt uncomfortable. He never liked when others bowed to him. Liam smiled, placing a hand on Bra'tac's shoulder, before sending him a short telepathic thought.

_Equals. Always remember._

Bra'tac stood surprised before bowing in understanding.

The group began moving, on their way to the Council's chamber. There were urgent matters the Jaffa council needed to discuss with them.

As they took their place around the table in the council's chamber, Bra'tac began, "Ancestor Liam, Councilor O'Neill, we wanted you here because we have a request for you."

"Please, go on." Liam replied.

"As you know, the Free Jaffa Nation has sustained considerable losses in the last engagement with the Lucian Alliance and we are asking you for help in restoring our fleet to its former glory."

Liam and Jack looked at each other. Even before coming here they knew this would be the probable topic of their discussion.

"Master Bra'tac, Council, regrettably we are not in the position to help you rebuild your fleet. As you know, we are using our full capacity to build our fleet to fight the Ori and… other threats," Jack said.

Bra'tac nodded in understanding, "That is most unfortunate."

"But, we already anticipated your request and we have a proposal for you; one that could solve your problem."

"What is your suggestion O'Neill?" Teal'c asked.

"Although we cannot spare any of our shipyards, there is a race that can and that we believe would be willing to help."

"Of which race you are speaking?" Teal'c asked.

"The Hebridians."

Teal'c stopped to think for a moment. It was true the Hebridians were a very advanced and even more importantly, a very industrialized race, but he also knew they would not help them just from the good of their hearts. "Why would they help us? Or more importantly, what would they want from us in return?"

"As you know, the Terrans and the Hebridians relations have deteriorated in recent years, mostly because the Terrans are not prepared to open Earth's market to them. Even so, we believe you could make some kind of deal with them. If you allow them to build you ships on their planet, they would gain access to new technology. In exchange, they may be willing to build you a certain number of ships for free."

"But then the Hebridians would have access to our technology. We cannot allow for that to happen."

"I'm not certain you have a choice, not with the Aschen threatening you. I also didn't say that you have to give them the schematics of your latest discoveries. You can always keep something for yourself, build it here and install it on your ships later. We all know that the most expensive part of building your ships is making the hull, reactors and hyperdrives. Everything else you can easily build yourself and install later."

"That is an intriguing proposition, but would the Hebridians agree to it?" Bra'tac asked.

"What the Hebridians would be most interested in is probably your hyperdrives, which are still faster than what they have. Your gravitic drive will also be interesting to them. More importantly, this way you can keep your weapons and shields away from them. This way you would actually give them nothing that they could use against you. If in time you promise them to open the FJN to their free market, I'm sure they would agree to build you many ships in return. After all, for them it is only materials and nothing more, and we know their industry can take it without a too big of a hit for their economy."

The council members looked at each other. This indeed looked as a possibility to expand their fleet at very low cost, and they knew sooner or later the Terrans or some other race would sell the Hebridians the blueprints for faster hyperdrives anyway, the only difference, they would be the one benefiting from such exchange.

"This is something we would be willing to accept. How many ships would they be willing to produce in exchange?"

"I have no idea, but whatever they decide to give you, never accept their first offer. It's a rule."

The people in the room continued discussing other matters. Even though the council would have preferred more if the Terrans or the Guardians provided them with what they needed, this was far from a bad idea. With this deal, if the Hebridians were willing, they would be getting many ships in a very short time and even after that, they could always make another deal with the Hebridians in exchange for something else. The Jaffa were after all the race with most mines in the entire galaxy.

The meeting ended with Liam, Jack, Teal'c and Bra'tac moving to leave the chamber. As one of the guards opened the doors, on the other side, a lone Jaffa stood with his weapon raised. Without giving anyone time to react, the plasma blast from his weapon flew at Bra'tac, hitting him straight in the chest. The Jaffa then turned to fire the weapon once again, this time at Jack, but two guards were able to tackle the Jaffa before he could fire.

Liam turned wanting to help Bra'tac, but then he stopped, sensing something.

Jack moved in front of Bra'tac. Looking straight in Bra'tac's eyes, he could feel the man's pain inflicted by the wound. Turning his gaze at the wound, he understood what he needed to do. He placed his hand on the dying Jaffa's chest, sensing a surge flowing through his hand.

Bra'tac gasped, sensing his wound healing in earnest. It was a feeling he had felt once before.

Jack moved his hand from Bra'tac's chest, no wound present where once there was one. He stood up, looking puzzled at Liam, but without saying anything.

Teal'c and another council member helped Bra'tac get on his feet. Bra'tac looked at his bare chest, with no wound to speak of. He moved closer to O'Neill, "Once again I owe you a debt of gratitude for saving my life."

"Yeah, sure Bra'tac, no problem. I'm just glad I was able to help," Jack replied, a little plastered by what had just happened and especially by what he had been able to do.

The other councilors in the room were surprised as well. They had all heard rumors of Jack having _changed_, some people even mentioning he had become an Ancient, but only few truly believed it even after seeing him looking twenty years younger. Now, instead, they knew for certain he was an Ancient.

Teal'c glanced into the hallway at the Jaffa still struggling. He moved near him with the others quickly fallowing behind, "Jaffa! Whom do you serve?"

The Jaffa, still struggling, said nothing.

"T, I think this Jaffa has been brainwashed," Jack said.

Bra'tac moved closer and looked straight in the man's eyes, "I believe O'Neill is correct. This man is not in control of his own actions."

"This is troubling," Ta'vel, another council member, added. "We are screening all our guards with the Za'tarc detector for that exact reason."

"Well, maybe you should start testing those that are testing the guards. It may very well be that you have a much bigger problem on your hands than you know."

"You are right. We will begin immediately," Bra'tac replied.

Jack and Liam moved a little back, while the Jaffa dealt with the latest incident.

Jack was the first to speak, "That's new."

Liam smiled, "Actually, it's not. You did it once before, remember?"

"Yeah, but that was then, when I stuck my head in that head sucking thingy."

"I told you. What the device did is not reversible. The Asgard only removed the knowledge, not the changes, and now that you're an Alterran, the rest of your new physiology helps you access those abilities," Liam explained, also with a mischievous smile on his face, something Jack didn't miss.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. I just thought how funny it is that the man who's in charge of the Terran military is actually a healer."

"I healed somebody. That doesn't mean I'm a healer."

"Actually it does. The repository of knowledge changes you, but not randomly, nor in the same way for everyone."

"I don't get it."

Liam already began walking out of the room with his hands behind his back, "How the device changes you, depends on where you are the most proficient."

Jack thought about it. '_A healer? Nah!'_

"Well, then your device is busted, that's all I'm going to say," Jack said, noticing that Liam had already made several meters away from him. He ran to catch up. "By the way, when were you planning to, um, propose to the others in my council to _change_ them?"

"Soon. It is not ready yet."

"It is not ready yet, what?"

Liam looked at Jack, "I'm running a genetic algorithm to see where the Terran evolution is going."

"Like what you did for the Asgard?"

"You know about that?"

"Thor told me when I asked him. I also asked him why they didn't do it by themselves by using a time dilation device to speed up the process, but I quickly regretted asking."

"I bet. The truth behind time dilation fields is easy to explain, in theory, but at the same time difficult to understand."

"Yeah, he started talking about the speed of light and another bunch of mambo-jumbo crap I didn't get."

"Well, the easiest answer is that a time dilation field is actually creating a field that slows light."

"Sure, whatever you say… wait! Thor said light always travels at the same speed; the speed of light."

"Exactly. Since light cannot be slowed down the result is that time starts moving faster to compensate. If you were to create a field that _tries _to accelerate light, you would slow down time, which is strangely, easier to achieve."

"I'll take your word for it," Jack replied, not caring very much about all this. "So, why do you need to run this genetic algorithm thingy if you were planning to change them like the Lanteans?"

"Because I'm not."

"You're not what?"

"Jack, you must understand that evolution primarily depends on the environment you live in, which means that humans from different world would progress in different ways. The people of Earth are evolving on a similar, but also different path than the Lanteans, and the only way to know where this evolution is going, is by running a massive simulation of all possible avenues and then pick up the best ones. And the genetic algorithm I'm running will give me just that."

"So, when is going to be ready?"

"Soon. Months, maybe half a year. When genetic algorithms are concerned, you never know. Why are you asking?"

"Because then maybe they'll stop looking at me as if am some kind of alien, that's why."

Liam chuckled, "They are still giving you looks I gather."

"You gather right. The president was so weirded out when he saw me that you wouldn't believe."

"Give them time Jack. They'll get used to it sooner or later."

"Yeah, I'm worried about the later part though. Can you believe that Earth's representatives actually brought the matter of expelling me from the council? They say there is no chance they are going to let an alien run things in the Terran Alliance."

"And what did the rest of your council do?"

"They backed me up, and told the representatives to go to hell."

"So, you see, there _is_ no problem."

"Yeah, but I think the representatives won't stop at that."

"The representatives work for Earth politicians, and they have been trying to replace you from the moment the Terran Alliance has been formed. They don't like the fact that someone who's not in their pockets is at the head of the Terran Alliance, the most powerful entity in this galaxy. But as long as your council stays united and as long as you do your job right, they have no leverage to demand anything. You are a citizen of Earth, you were born there and they have no ground to kick you just because your genetic makeup has changed," Liam explained just as the two of them exited the building. They needed to do so if they wanted to be beamed on the Enterprise, because of the jamming field.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Space  
**_Stardate:2461.91_

It had taken some time, but eventually the word had spread enough for Odai to receive the Terran invite to meet. The idea was for two ships to make contact in the void of space, a place Odai had chosen as being relatively safe from any possible ambush. Apparently Odai wasn't as stupid as others believed since he had definitely chosen a good place, somewhere near a Neutron star where an ambush would be almost impossible because the Terrans cloaking capabilities wouldn't work near the star. When close to a neutron star, the radiation is high enough not only to limit the effectiveness of shields, but it is also strong enough that the ship needs to keep its shields up if the crew doesn't want to absorb high doses of radiation. It meant the cloak couldn't be activated, thus, the Terrans could not bring a fleet of cloaked ships to the rendezvous point.

After a short conversation between Odai and the captain of the Apollo Elis, in which Odai had categorically refused to leave his ship, the Terrans had no other choice but to send a team to their ship instead, the only way Odai would have the meeting. And since beaming was out of the question in such circumstances due to the neutron star, SG-1 had to take a raptor to fly to Odai's flagship.

Exiting the raptor inside the large hangar bay of the Ha'tak, the team, accompanied by armed guards, slowly made their way to the ship's bridge where Odai was awaiting their arrival. Saying that Mitchell felt uncomfortable walking through a Lucian ship without any weapons on him would have been an understatement. Nevertheless, since it was the only way Odai would allow them to come to the bridge, Mitchell reluctantly had to agree to the terms and give them all their weapons.

Entering the bridge, Mitchell quickly looked around, counting the various armed people already inside. He did so not as much as to find possible threats, he knew there was no chance of winning in a firefight with no weapons at his disposal and against so many armed Lucians present, but he did so more because he was looking if there were any of the other Lucian captains in the room. If the Lucians had been infiltrated by the Aschen, there was a good chance they had placed someone as one of Odai's captains, high enough to be in the loop with everything the Lucians did these days and also in a way being able to control or at least influence Odai. Mitchell was glad to see that, except for the usual armed grunts, there was no Lucian captain in the room. It also meant that the current leadership of the Lucian Alliance had probably been decimated in the last battle with the Jaffa, but that wasn't that relevant for today's meeting.

Mitchell, with Peters, Ford and Vala in tow, approached the ship's Pel'tak where Odai was standing. He and the rest of his team remained silent, waiting patiently. He wanted Odai to be the one to initiate the conversation.

"Cameron Mitchell, we meet again." Odai said after having turned to face the team.

There was no apparent hostility in Odai's voice, something Mitchell liked very much. "Ventrell, I see you took the initiative and took control of the Lucian Alliance after Netan's premature demise. Good for you," Mitchell said.

"Netan was a fool and a sadist. He deserved whatever came to him," Odai said.

Mitchell decided it would be a good thing to immediately steer the conversation to the reason why they were here. "Well, it appears that many have recently turned out looking like fools."

Odai didn't like the insinuation Mitchell had just implied of him being a fool, but he had the slight feeling there was more to it, "Do you believe Mitchell that it is a good idea to insult your host like this?"

"Oh, you misunderstood what I meant. We all turned out looking like fools," Mitchell said.

"We did? How?"

"Well, it looks like this entire war between the Lucian Alliance and the FJN was orchestrated by somebody else, somebody who wants nothing more than for us to kill each other."

Odai already suspected somebody else had orchestrated the initial attack that plunged both factions into a senseless war. "And who would that third party be?"

"The Aschen," Mitchell replied simply.

"The Aschen?" Odai repeated, clueless who the Aschen were.

"Yeah, creepy humans, if they can be called humans at all, with no sense of humor or any other emotion for that matter."

Odai looked puzzled at Mitchell, but there was a crescendo feeling creeping out at the back of his head. It took him a moment before he realized what the feeling was. The description was the right fit for, "Lucius!"

"Now I am the one not knowing what you're talking about."

"Lucius was one of my captains. He was the creepiest guy I know. I always felt strange when around him, like there was something not right, not human about him."

"Oh well, that's the same we feel every time we meet with the Aschen. I noticed you said he _was_ one of your captains?"

"I killed him when he made one too many mistake in the last battle," Odai said, not wanting to further have to explain that he actually killed him because of his attitude more than because of the mistakes he'd made. If he killed people just because of the mistakes they made, he would quickly remain alone. "Who are they?"

"We met them many years back when we stumbled on a planet that was in their confederation. At first we thought we found a very technologically advanced human race, peaceful and prepared to share their knowledge with us. At the time, we were also fighting the Goa'uld so any help we could get was welcomed with open arms. It was only afterwards that we discovered their true intentions."

"Which are?"

"To kill everybody on our planet, or any other planet for that matter, by giving us some miraculous cure that would eventually turn us all sterile, unable to bare children. Their M.O. is to slowly commit genocide on other races in order to take their planets."

"That… is actually something even I would never think of doing," Odai thought out loud. The Lucian Alliance was known for its ruthlessness most days of the week, but committing genocide wasn't something they would ever think of doing. There was also no money in it.

"The Aschen orchestrated this war between you and the FJN because they wanted for you to kill each other. Their plan was probably to prolong the war as much as possible, waiting patiently until you killed each other and then swoop in and destroy whoever survived. We think they are planning the same with us and the Ori. Wait, watch and keep the war going while staying on the sideline without sustaining any losses. It's not a bad plan when you think about it."

Odai thought about it and if there was something he really didn't like, even more than somebody trying to kill him, was being used. Yet, he still needed proof, "This is all a very nice story, but I still need proof and of course I need to know the reason why you wanted this meeting."

Mitchell slowly took out a small crystal from one of the pockets on his suit's belt, also being careful not to look threatening. There was still a lot of Lucians around them with a happy trigger, "This crystal contains data we have retrieved from their homeworld. It details their involvement in this war and all future plans concerning the Lucian Alliance. They were also planning to eventually kill you and replace you with some spy they have placed in your midst. It doesn't mention his name, but from what you told me, I can bet it was Lucius."

Odai took the crystal. He didn't have to check it to know that the crystal would confirm what Mitchell had just said. "And you are giving us this because…"

"Because this war must end now if we don't want to play the Aschen's game. The FJN has already agreed to an armistice. Let's say the FJN feels it would rather fight somebody other than you."

Odai understood the Jaffa wanting to fight the Aschen. He felt the same way. "Agreed. The Lucian Alliance will cease all hostilities toward the…"

"Odai! I'm detecting two hyperspace windows opening," one of the Lucians manning the sensors replied.

"You lured us here only to ambush us?" Odai said, directing the question at Mitchell.

Mitchell didn't reply immediately because he was listening through his comm. unit what Ellis was telling him. "No Odai, it isn't us. Two Aschen cruisers just came out of hyperspace. Our ship has also detected a short data burst that has originated from this ship less than two minutes ago. Odai, you must still have Aschen spies on your ship."

Odai looked around him, making eye contact with all of the Lucians present in the room. He was trying to find someone, someone who made him feel the same way he felt when he would look at Lucius. It didn't take long to find one person in the room who was behaving differently from the rest. It was like the man's demeanor hadn't changed at all after having heard that there were two enemy ships converging on their location, someone who behaved calm as if he knew what was going on and someone who wasn't feeling any fear. "Cease him!"

As Odai said those two words, the Aschen spy moved quickly toward the bridge's door while taking out his weapon. As he pointed the weapon to shoot at Odai, Mitchell moved quickly to step in-between the two of them. The bullets from the strange Uzi-like weapon hit Mitchell's exoskeleton suit multiple times, just before the Aschen stepped outside the bridge, quickly disappearing from sight.

"Why did you do that?" Odai asked, plastered at how Mitchell had stepped in front of him to save his life.

"Because I don't like when the Aschen win and right now their goal is to stop these peace talks," Mitchell said while looking at the small dents the bullets had left on his breast armor plating. He would have to polish his suit again. "Can we have our weapons back now? We need to catch him before he escapes or sabotages the ship."

"We have a bigger problem Odai. Our shields have been under tremendous stress by being so close to the neutron star. We are in no shape to fight and the two unknown ships are quickly approaching our position."

"Move the ship to somewhere where we can enter hyperspace and give the weapons back to the Terrans," Odai ordered.

SG-1 quickly took their weapons, readying themselves for the chase that was about to follow, "What about us? We still need to get back to our ship."

"For now, you're our guests. If we manage to enter hyperspace, we will drop you on some planet with a stargate where you can gate home, but for now, escaping this place is my first priority and yours is to catch that bastard. Take this radio so we can stay in contact. I'll let my people know you're not the enemy, not today at least. Now go," Odai said.

Mitchell nodded in understanding and the team quickly moved out of the bridge, the same moment as the ship shook from an impact. The Aschen had reached weapons range.

On the other ship, the one commanded by Ellis, the captain was sitting in his chair and he didn't like their current situation. The ship's shields had been considerably strained from the vicinity to the Neutron star and he was more than certain the Hat'ak's shields weren't faring any better. To make matters worse, his ship still didn't get the upgrades and, in this case, he knew a micro-ZPM would be of great help. He could have boosted the shields considerably if that had been the case.

"Captain, the Aschen vessels are turning toward the Lucian Ha'tak."

"What are the Lucians doing?" Ellis asked.

"They are moving away from the neutron star. They are probably trying to enter hyperspace in order to escape," the crewman manning the sensors said.

"Helm, move to intercept the Aschen ships. Transfer all backup power to the shields and bring all weapons online," Ellis ordered.

The Apollo lurched forward on an intercept course with the two Aschen ships, but while they were still outside weapons range, the two Aschen cruisers had already neared the lonely Lucian Hat'ak and opened fire. Bright green beams of energy struck the larger yet in worse shape Ha'tak warship, with its shields flaring brightly from the massive strain they were being put through. Finally reaching weapons range, the Apollo opened fire from the four main plasma cannons at the closest Aschen ship with the bolts slamming into the ship's shields. Concurrently, three Mark VIII streaked from three frontal tubes, the missiles moving in erratic manner while approaching the second Aschen ship, only to be downed by point defense systems coming from the targeted ship. One of the Aschen ships, the one having been hit by the plasma bolts, turned abruptly, leaving the previously targeted Lucian Ha'tak to the other ship in order to face the new threat. More green beams of disruptive energy streaked from the vessel, hitting the Apollo in full.

Inside the Apollo, the crew felt the ship shake from the impacts of the Aschen weapons, "Shield at 56 percent captain. The Lucians are still not returning fire."

Ellis didn't like how they had begun this battle with their shields already in bad shape, but he needed to keep the Aschen ships or at least one of them at bay until the Ha'tak could safely enter hyperspace. It meant getting away enough from the neutron star so that the hyperspace window wouldn't be disrupted. Ellis also understood why the Lucians were not firing at the Aschen. There was no point in doing it. Odai must have realized they didn't stand a chance of winning an engagement against even one of the Aschen ship with their shields already strained by the vicinity to the neutron star. He must have opted to push all available energy to the shields and its sublight engines in order to escape the onslaught. "Are we doing any damage to the Aschen ship with our weapons?"

"Unknown sir. So far their shields are holding and the vicinity to the neutron star is not helping us detect any possible drop in their shields' strength."

"Begin evasive maneuvers, pattern alpha, and keep firing from all weapons," Elis ordered. The idea was to keep the Aschen ships busy for as long as they could and not to try to destroy them. They probably couldn't even destroy it, since there were two of them against one and their shields were in a much better condition than theirs. There was also the fact that they didn't really know the capabilities of the Aschen ships. Ellis only hoped that the Ha'tak could resist the Aschen fire from one of their ships while they kept the other one at bay.

Inside the Lucian Ha'tak, SG-1 was moving through the various corridors in search for the lonely Aschen spy. Mitchell didn't know what the spy intended to do, he didn't know if the spy would try to reach a Tel'tak in order to escape or if he was about to try to sabotage the ship. To be on the safe side though, he radioed Odai and told him to place as many people he could near critical systems where the Aschen could do some damage, like shield generators, the reactor or the hyperdrive, all important if they wanted to survive and escape this battle.

As they moved through yet another corridor, Mitchell received the information on where Odai believed the current location of the Aschen spy was. He had been spotted on his way to the secondary control room. Mitchell knew that, if he managed to reach it, he could do a lot of damage. Without waiting, the team increased their pace.

Finally having reached the secondary control room, the team found two Lucians dead on the floor near the entrance door. Mitchell peeked inside the room, immediately spotting the Aschen working on the central console. He was probably trying to hack the system in order to gain control. Mitchell took out his holstered zat-gun and motioned to the others to do the same. He wanted the Aschen alive and healthy so that he could answer a few questions.

Counting down from three with his fingers until he reached zero, the team stormed inside zat blazing at the lonely Aschen. Unfortunately, the Aschen had somehow heard them because he had moved behind the console in order to take cover, firing at the team from the moment they had stepped inside. Bullets struck the armor of both Mitchell and Ford, but the Aschen had to quickly duck behind the console if he didn't want to get hit by what would have probably been a deadly dose of zat fire coming his way. Not having sustained any injuries, the four of them, two on one side and two on the other, quickly moved to flank the Aschen behind the console. The Aschen again tried to lean on the left side of the console in order to shoot at them again, but Vala was already jumping forward, sliding onto the floor until she passed on the other side of the console, immediately shooting the target in the back the moment she had a clear shot. The Aschen, clearly in pain from the zat blast, hit the floor, quickly falling unconscious. The four of them regrouped near the neutralized target taking his weapon away from him.

"Did you see how I took care of him?" Vala said proudly.

Mitchell quickly looked at the console, noticing that the Aschen had accessed the ship's self-destruct sequence. "Yes Vala, I saw it. It would have been much better though if you didn't shoot the console too."

"What do you care about a console?"

"Normally I wouldn't, but since he managed to activate the self-destruct, it would be a good thing if we could use the console to stop it," Mitchell said, glaring at Vala.

"Oh… yeah… that would be a good thing, wouldn't it," Vala replied, sheepishly.

"Is there any other way we can stop the countdown? If this countdown is correct we have less than twenty minutes."

"Thankfully for us, the Goa'uld were always more preoccupied about being able to stop a self-destruct than from the ship falling into the wrong hands and you can be glad you have an expert on the subject aboard," Vala replied, smiling.

"Yeah, and who would that expert be?"

"There is no need to hurt my feelings like that Mitchell."

"Vala."

"Yes."

"Time is ticking."

"Oh, okay. We can take out one of the control crystals from the reactor room. Without it, the reactor will stop working, and without the reactor working, there is no possibility of it overloading, isn't it?"

"That's great Vala, but you do know we are under attack and that if we disengage the reactor, we would be sitting ducks. That of course is only one of the problems, because the moment we deactivate the reactor the shields will drop and the radiation from the neutron star will cook us in matter of minutes," Mitchell replied angrily.

"There is no need to get angry at me. You asked if there was a way to stop the self-destruct and I gave you one. I never said it was a good one."

Mitchell thought for a while about what to do, "Alright, let's take this guy back to the bridge for now. Maybe we'll be gone before the countdown reaches zero."

Taking the Aschen by his hands and legs, the team started carrying him like a sack of potatoes through the corridors and back to the bridge.

Meanwhile, the fight outside the ship was still raging, with the second Aschen warship relentlessly firing in an attempt to destroy the Ha'tak before it could flee in hyperspace. He thankfully didn't succeed. The next moment, distant enough from the ill effects of the neutron star's radiation, the Ha'tak opened a hyperspace window and disappeared inside. They were at least able to escape, and yet they still weren't completely safe.

Without the Ha'tak as a target, the second ship decided the Apollo would be a good consolation price, something Ellis didn't particularly like from the moment he saw the second ship turn towards them.

"Shield strength at thirty-four percent sir. Their weapons fire is now capable of bleeding through our shields and the hull is sustaining considerable damage."

"Disengage from the battle. The Ha'tak is safe and now is time for us to leave too. We will have to postpone this battle for another day," Ellis said, not particularly liking the idea of fleeing, but he knew their situation wasn't one of the best and they didn't come here to fight the Aschen in the first place either.

Once the Apollo had reached the minimum safe distance from the neutron star, they opened a hyperspace window and sped inside it. It was just in time because the two tailing Aschen warships had managed to drop their shields to less than twenty percent.

On the Lucian flagship, SG-1 had just entered the bridge. Odai was very happy to see the team had brought a gift with them, "I have to thank you twice today for having saved our lives. We were able to monitor from here what that bastard was trying to do. I'm surprised this man was ready to kill all of us, himself included without a second thought."

"Don't celebrate yet. The bastard has managed to activate the self-destruct and the console in the secondary control room has been damaged."

"I don't know of any other way to stop the self-destruct if the console that was used to activate it in the first place is inoperable."

"Vala here said that we can disconnect a control crystal from the reactor room. It will safely shut down the reactor, which means no worry of it going critical. After that we only need to wait for the countdown to reach zero and then reactivate the reactor."

"How much time do we have?"

"Seven minutes, just enough time to reach the reactor and take out the crystal."

"Alright. If Vala knows how to do it, then she's the best candidate to go to the reactor room."

With a nod from Mitchell, Vala moved out well on her way.

"So, what now? I mean, after we solve this little self-destruct problem," Mitchell asked.

"After that, I'll drop you on the nearest safe planet with a stargate so that you can gate back home. We will interrogate this man here and see what he knows, the moment he regains consciousness."

"Odai, let us do that. We have equipment back home that will tell us what we need to know."

"And then what? You get your answers and we get nothing? I don't like that very much."

"What if I promise we will share with you whatever this man will say to us?"

"And I'm supposed to believe you?"

"Why not? Maybe we will never be friends and there is definitely the chance of, somewhere down the line, us being at war once again, but for now, we have the same enemy to fight. We are busy with the Ori right now and the last thing we need is for the Aschen to be able to infiltrate the Lucians. If this man knows any other Aschen spy in the Lucian Alliance, it is in our best interest to let you know."

It did sound right to Odai and he knew the Terrans had devices capable of seeing if someone was lying. Of course the Lucians and the Terrans would never see eye to eye, but in this particular situation it would be beneficial to both sides to cooperate. There was also the fact that Odai didn't know much about the Aschen and if he wanted to change that, he would need the Terrans. He didn't like relying on the Terrans for anything, but collaboration in this instance was simply a good business decision. "Alright, but only if you promise to share any relevant information on the Aschen. If you know about a threat we could face against them, I want you to give us that information. We will do the same from our end."

"Deal," Mitchell said, both man shaking their hands.

After that, the conversation quickly ended with both parties agreeing on mutually helping each other if the Aschen were concerned. After a short pit stop in order to deactivate the reactor, they continued to the nearest planet with a stargate on it where the team and the Aschen departed the larger ship with their raptor. While Peters and Ford had taken the Aschen through the gate to the Alpha Site, Mitchell and Vala stayed with the raptor and the pilots waiting for the Apollo to show up. The mission ended a success, albeit the fact that the Aschen were now aware of the meeting, as well as the fact that they had openly attacked them without thinking twice, wasn't something the leader of the flag team particularly liked. It meant the Aschen had now even officially become an enemy, something they all knew it would inevitably happen, if not now, then eventually for certain, but Mitchell didn't like the timing. The Ori were only beginning the second round and having to think about what the Aschen would do next was not something they needed right now. And Mitchell knew the Aschen would not be an easy opponent, not one they could easily defeat.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aschen Prime  
**_Stardate:2475.71_

Inside the already seen room, the same group of Aschen people was meeting once again. The atmosphere inside was one of dissatisfaction as things apparently weren't going the way they had predicted them to go. And the Aschen, if nothing else, always praised themselves for being a very patient and calculative race, a race that always logically analyzed the facts and would come up with the most probable outcome. The problem was that even in their wildest dreams, if they dreamt such dreams, they never thought someone could so easily come to their planet, impersonate one of their own using some kind of unknown holographic mimicking technology and steal top secret data inside one of their most guarded buildings. Even their scans which to their knowledge were infallible had turned out to be very much fallible, allowing someone scanned to enter the building even though he wasn't the person he was impersonating.

The ramifications of this were so complex and unpredictable that no Aschen in the room knew how this already deemed a catastrophe would play out in the long run. Their plan had been simple. Stay on the sideline and incite wars and disagreement among the many races in the Milky Way galaxy, mostly focusing on destroying the Lucians and FJN while closely monitoring the evolving situation between the Ori and the Terrans and, if needed, helping the losing party in an attempt to prolong the war that would inevitably weaken both sides. Now, instead, the Terrans were very much aware of their plans, and they had apparently shared that knowledge with even the Lucians, pirates they thought the Terrans would have never had contacted.

"The situation merits immediate changes in our plans. The Terrans are aware of them and we can predict they will act against us in the near future," one of the Aschen around the table said.

"Our way of predicting what our enemies will do is the reason why we are in such a position. Even the Jaffa have not behaved the way we predicted. They must have been influenced by the Terrans, it's the only logical conclusion for them to change their tactics on both the ground and in space. We believed the Jaffa would have charged the Lucians senselessly, driven by rage. Instead, they have systematically attacked weaker targets first and only after they were done with those have they attacked the Lucian fleet. And even in that case it wasn't a senseless charge, but more a well thought out strategy using their superior ships to attack the Lucians from multiple sides."

"The way they have also used a jamming signal to even the odds inside the minefield was as well out of character. The Terrans must have taught them not to think like barbarians."

"We can at least predict what the Jaffa and the Lucians will do next."

"Even that is not a certainty anymore. Yes, there is a great chance that they will turn against us, the moment they recuperate from the losses they have sustained during the war, but the Terrans will most certainly influence them to be patient and first assess the situation."

"I agree. The Terrans will help the Jaffa with intelligence gathering at the least, if not with direct military aid."

"Which forces us to go back and assess the real problem."

"The Terrans."

"Exactly. Without them, the Lucians and Jaffa are not a threat; something that cannot be said to be true with the Terrans present."

"We must take out the Terrans."

"There is still the problem of the Ori. If we attack the Terrans, which still doesn't guarantee victory, but even if we are able to win against them, the Ori will remain uncontested in this galaxy. And we will not be able to stop them on our own."

"No matter if we decide to attack the Terrans or not, we must first find out how they have managed to breach our security and prevent any further attempts from succeeding. It was only chance that we were able to discover their infiltration. If I didn't detect there was something strange about Mollem's behavior, there is a good chance we wouldn't even know they had breached our planet," Mollem's direct superior said.

"We have increased security in our buildings and sensitive data cannot that easily be accessed anymore through anyone's account. Still, their ship being able to bypass our orbital detection grid remains a problem. To successfully enter the planet's atmosphere they need to have cloaking technology beyond anything we know of even theoretically being possible," Mollem said, thinking how he knew of various cloaking technologies that can remain undetected by their ships' sensors, but not one of those could pass through an active grid like the one they had placed around their planet.

"They apparently have technology beyond what we imagined. This could prove to be an even greater problem. So far we know very little about the Terrans, since with their sensors capable of detecting any ship approaching their planets we have no way of knowing their true strength. This must be a priority for us. We need to find out more about what they have," the man at the head of the table said. "Were we able to find a cure for the Ori virus? Before we attack the Terrans we must be certain we have found the cure for the virus the Ori might use against us."

"We are in the final stage of the research. With the samples the Terrans have provided us with, we were able to create variations of the virus that targets different genomes. This has helped us understand how the virus attacks the host and I'm confident we will be able to devise a cure in a very short time."

"Good. With the increase in planetary defenses and with the cure, we might be able to protect Aschen Prime from the Ori. Only then we can start planning against the Terrans."

"Agreed. What is the timeline for the cure?"

"A month, maybe three weeks at the earliest."

"Good. We will reconvene then and continue planning the attack on Earth and its colonies. In the meantime, try to find any way we can weaken the Terrans. Once we openly start attacking them, they will inevitably retaliate."

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Tollana**_  
Stardate:2477.31_

Colonel Young was marveling the beautiful panoramic view from the balcony of his new office located in Borealis' central tower. From here he could see the entire north side of the city, as well as the capital city on Tollana more than ten miles from where the city was floating. The city had been on Tollana for months now, and only a week ago it had received its new commander. Young didn't expect to be placed at such position. He thought someone who wasn't from the military would get the posting, but since recent events had made the Council decide to send Borealis to the Large Magellanic Cloud, a military commander had been decided as the better option. Borealis would serve as a command center until the situation with the Leptinians is resolved. The city would serve to resupply the ships that were already there and to provide a direct connection with Earth through its stargate.

Because of its new mission, Borealis had spent the last seven days getting upgraded with the drone fighters system and with additional drones that would serve as defense or to resupply the ships already there. The Leptinians usually used smaller craft to attack and these two systems would be the best possible defense if the city was discovered. While these upgrades were being done, the Copernic had found a suitable planet for the city to land. The planet, similar to Lantea, had its surface almost completely covered with a massive ocean, perfect for the city, especially because such planet would unlikely attract the Leptinians. There was no large landmass on the planet, something the Leptinians were looking for, for their breeding grounds.

"Commander Young, the city has been retrofitted with 300 drone fighters and now it has a stockpile of ten thousand drones," Zelenka said as he stepped onto the balcony. To be able to take so many fighters, new construction had to be built on the various piers the city had. It would limit larger ships from landing, but for this particular mission, having a strong air wing was more important.

"Good. Are all crew members on board or do we have to wait for someone else to show up?" Young replied after turning to face the scientist.

"Everything is ready. We can leave whenever we want. There is one request I have though."

"What request?"

"I still haven't had the time to properly test the new Enhanced Neutrino Ion Generators we have installed here on Tollana, and even though Borealis assures me everything is in perfect order, I would like to stress test them on our trip to the satellite galaxy," Zelenka said. The four ENI Generators were a great addition to the flying city. In complete agreement, the members of the council decided that adding them to both cities would allow for the ZPMs to be recharged when not needed, and the cities would most of the time be able to work with the generators alone. 99 percent of the time the city would be on the planet's surface, having its shield, sublight engines, inertial dampeners and stardrive turned off, the only systems that actually needed the ZPMs to work properly. For everything else, the four new generators were more than enough to provide the city with power. But they were still a new and mostly untested technology, and Radek wanted to test them a little more thoroughly.

"What do you have in mind doctor?"

"Well, while we still need the ZPMs to lift off the planet and while I would still like to keep the shield powered by the ZPMs, I would like to use the generators to power the stardrive."

"I don't see why not. You have my permission."

"Well, there is one little problem though."

"Which is?"

"The stardrive powered with the ZPMs can achieve an incredible speed, and I can't say the same if we use the generators instead."

"How long will it take to reach our destination?"

"A little over 26 hours."

Young thought about it for a moment. "I think I can live with that. Doctor Zelenka, you can instruct Borealis to leave whenever you feel we are ready. You know more about the city-ship than I do anyway," Young said, thinking how getting this post only a few days ago had left him unable to learn everything he needed before they were scheduled to leave. On the other hand, Zelenka had commanded Borealis from the moment it left its original planet, he having been the one who flew the city to Tollana. For now, Young believed it was best if he left Zelenka do most of the commanding around here and interfere only in regard to military decisions.

"Borealis," Zelenka said, waiting for a moment.

"Yes, Doctor Zelenka," the hologram said the moment it appeared next to the scientist.

"Initiate liftoff procedure and switch the ENI generators to power the stardrive."

As Zelenka finished the sentence, the voice of Borealis was heard throughout the entire city, notifying everybody the city was about to leave Tollana. A slight humming sound was followed, Zelenka understanding it were the inertial dampeners and the sublight engine powering up the one making the noise. It took maybe a minute or so before the massive dome shield sprang to life, encompassing the entire city.

With a slight tremor, the city began rising from the ocean, slowly gaining altitude. After having reached ten miles in altitude, more to not wreak havoc on the capital city nearby than anything else, the city powered its massive sublight engine to full trust, pushing the city further into the upper layers of the planet's atmosphere with tremendous force. As the city left the planet, venturing further away into space, the massive stardrive powered up and opened a hyperspace window. The city quickly disappeared inside, leaving Tollana's system.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Earth  
**_Stardate:2481.28_

Inside the usual Council's chamber, the small group of very important people was once again meeting in order to discuss the Ori threat and other sensitive matters that currently troubled the Terrans.

"What's our current situation in the Large Magellanic Cloud?" Dmitri asked Jack.

"Our fleet has reached the Tik'al's homeworld a few days ago and they are already planning their first joint mission with the Tik'al. One of their ships had found a Leptinian planet with shipyards on it, two thousand light years from their homeworld. The planet is well defended and the Tik'al asked us for our help on this mission," Jack replied.

"So we are definitely going to wage war against the Leptinians?" Dmitri asked.

"Daniel," Jack said, looking at him expectantly to start explaining the situation.

"Not from lack of trying. I have tried to make contact with the Leptinians, but I wasn't successful," Daniel answered.

"You didn't find them?" Dmitri asked.

"No, I did find them, but their reaction wasn't what I was expecting. They simply didn't answer to any of our calls and we quickly realized that if we stayed, they would have attacked us the same way as it happened the last time. Before their craft could reach us though, Caldwell ordered the ship to leave."

"Is it possible they didn't receive your communication or that they couldn't understand us?"

"No, I don't believe this to be the case. From what the Tik'al told us, the Leptinians have in the past showed great intelligence and also the ability to speak the Tik'al language, and I tried in both our language and theirs to communicate with them."

"So what, they will just attack senselessly everybody they encounter?" Dmitri asked.

"I think we have too little knowledge on the Leptinians to make assumptions on what their true intentions are. The Leptinians are the first hostile race that has no ties whatsoever with humans. Even the Wraith were once humans and we can at least start understanding them from that point on as well as from their need to feed on humans. With the Leptinians we know nothing on how they think."

"But in the meantime we are going to kick their collective asses as long as they threaten the Ti'kal," Jack added.

"Yes I'm aware of that, but I think it is also important we try to find out what drives them to behave like that," Daniel said still thinking that there should be a better way to deal with them than just blasting them until they are all dead.

"Why? They don't want to talk to us, they attack any ship they come across and they do the same if somebody steps on one of their planets," Jack said, not knowing what else they could do.

"Well, you see, here you are wrong."

"I am?"

"Yes you are. From what we know from our first encounter, they are not senseless killers that kill everything that moves. The planet we visited and where they have a colony did have its entire fauna intact and they only kill certain animals they use as food source. On the planet there are animals similar to apes that showed signs of intelligence, but the Leptinians are leaving them alone probably because they don't perceive them as a threat."

"Daniel, where are you going with this?"

"I'm trying to tell you that for some reason they perceive humans as a threat while they leave other creatures to live free without bothering with them. The Tik'al are also aware of at least one other intelligent alien race in their galaxy that has a planet near one of their previous colonies from before they were attacked by the Leptinians. The aliens are far from having spaceships or anything like that, which means that if the Leptinians wanted their planet, they could have taken it much easier than any of the Tik'al's colonies."

"You are missing something Daniel. They attacked _us_ even though they didn't know who we were. Can you explain why they attacked the Daedalus the first time?"

"That part I haven't figured out yet…" Daniel started his reply, but he was cut short by Klaus.

"I think I have. From the Daedalus logs, the Leptinians didn't attack them the moment they came out of hyperspace. They waited for several minutes," Klaus said.

"Your point being?" Jack said. He was starting to lose patience with this line of conversation, and now even Klaus got involved. This could take a while.

"We know the Leptinians are telepathic, which means they could have contacted their people on the planet's surface the moment they entered the system."

"Of course, the Leptinians on the ground saw our people. They knew we are humans," Daniel concluded Klaus thought.

"What about Kvasir?" Sam jumped in. "The Asgard have also tried to contact them."

Immediately after the first battle with the Leptinians, the Terrans had informed the other three great races of the incident as it was obligatory to do in such circumstances. The Asgard had sent one of their ships to try to contact the alien race, but they didn't have much luck either.

"Sam, it is possible that the aliens didn't reply because the Daedalus was next to the Asgard ship when they tried. I know because I was there. If the Leptinians for some reason have a grudge against humans, they would most certainly think the Asgard are on our side since we showed up together," Daniel replied.

"People, can we please go back to the topic?" Jack said, not liking how the discussion was progressing.

Daniel turned to face Jack. "I thought we were."

"No Daniel we weren't. Does any of this change anything of what we are planning in _that…_ yet another galaxy?" Jack asked, thinking how, maybe, they were expanding a little too much a little too fast.

"No, not really. Maybe we could try to find the reason why they are behaving like this, that's all," Daniel replied.

"Good, when you find a way to do just that, let me know. For now, let's focus on the immediate task at hand, shall we? So, as I said before, our ships will soon engage the enemy in a combined effort with the Tik'al. Are we in accord with this?" Jack asked, watching the others nodding. "Good. Now, from the intel we have gathered so far, Colonel Young suggests we send a few more ships to strengthen the fleet we have already sent."

"Well, if we send more ships we can achieve a faster victory that's for sure," Dmitri said.

"I don't agree," Klaus said. "We don't know how long the war will last, or what the enemy's real strength is for that matter. What concerns me even more though is the situation that is developing in the Pegasus galaxy. First our space station is attacked by a race we know very little of and then we find out that the Wraith are not so dead after all. I think that, with this development, we should send more ships in the Pegasus galaxy to prepare for when we find any of these two races. We can also expect the Ori to step up very soon. I don't believe their attack on Quiril is the only thing they are planning."

"I agree and that's why I told Young that he'll have to do with what he has. On the subject of the Pegasus galaxy I also think we should send more ships there and I also asked Thor if the Asgard can lay a hand."

"What did he say?"

"He was open to the idea. I think he wants to try his new ship more than anything else, but I can't be sure."

"So, he got the command of the first Valhalla class ship."

"He did, and apparently he likes the ship a lot. Anyway, he is prepared to send a task force comprised of half a dozen O'Neills, a few science vessels and his to canvas the galaxy with their sensors."

"Why only six O'Neills? I thought the Asgard have many more?" Klaus asked, not knowing for what else they would use the rest of their fleet. The Asgard were at peace in their galaxy and as far as he knew, they didn't have any ships in any other galaxy at the moment.

"Yeah, they are upgrading the rest of their fleet to the O'Neill II specs, just like what they did to the six ships they are sending." Jack said. "So, I need to know if or what we are sending to the Pegasus galaxy as reinforcement."

"The Daedalus class is not the best ship to fight the Ori, but they should be perfect to chase down the alien race that attacked our space station. With a few AF-307 as support, they could become a force to be reckoned with. The BSs and the Auroras as well as the new 306 could stay here if the Ori show up," Sam said.

"Paul, what's our status with the upgrades of the 304s?"

"Eight ships are currently being upgraded and it will take two or three weeks to finish them all. If we don't count the Daedalus and the Odyssey, we can send twelve 304s to the Pegasus right now. That leaves us with the Enterprise, the Redemption, eight Auroras and the Hercules here. In a week we should also have six more BSs ready."

"I think we can manage with that. Most of the Guardian ships are canvasing the nearby satellite galaxies for the beacon the Furling supposedly left, so if we need help they can be here in less than an hour."

"I just hope we will soon begin solving some of the problems we are having around here. I have the clear impression we are gaining enemies, and a lot of them, without solving any of them," Dmitri said.

"Me too Dmitri, me too," Jack said, also not liking how the number of enemies was piling up. "And with the Pegasus galaxy solved, we come to the two last topics of this day, the Aschen and the Ori."

"I don't think we can do anything about the Aschen right now. Their planet is just too well defended for a direct assault and with all the other problems we're having I don't see how we can spare the resources for fighting another enemy," Klaus said.

"What about our Ambassador?" Sam asked. From what Liam had been able to retrieve from their planet, they were now more than certain Faxon didn't die as the Aschen had suggested, but in fact he has been held prisoner for the past nine years. "I mean, the man has spent the last nine years in prison on an alien world. I think we owe him at least that much to try and do something."

"There is no way we can free him. We don't even know where he's held," Klaus said.

"Maybe we can plan a similar mission as the one Liam had in order to retrieve the data?" Sam asked.

"I talked to Liam and he's open to it, but the Aschen would have stepped up their security after Liam's infiltration. It could be very dangerous and this time we would have to storm a prison and not a simple building. I'm also not sure the same tactic of impersonating an Aschen would work here, but you're right, we owe Faxon that much. Klaus, you can start planning a rescue mission. If you find a way to infiltrate their world and if there's at least a chance we could save him, I'm inclined to give the green light, but only if we have a viable option."

Klaus nodded, "I'll go through the data Liam retrieved and see what I can come up with."

"Good, let's now talk about the Ori invasion on Quiril," Jack said.

"Is there some new development?" Sam asked.

"Anderson just called me. As you know the Ori soldiers reached our defense line a week ago and stopped there. At first we thought they were waiting for more soldiers and supplies to reach them before they begin their attack, but now I have confirmation that the Ori are digging themselves deep."

"They are building a defense line of their own?" Sam asked.

"That they are," Jack said, sighing. "They want us to come to them."

"That's not good," Klaus said. "If they are deeply entrenched, we can expect many losses on our side if we attack, especially with the new tanks our recon teams saw. Who knows what else they have."

"Can we just not attack and keep it as it is?" Daniel asked. "I mean, is not like we are in any hurry or anything."

"We aren't, but the Quirilians are. They want their planet back, so no, we can't wait indefinitely," Jack said.

"What are our estimated losses if we do attack their position?" Dmitri asked.

"On Langara we got used to winning with more than twenty times less casualties than the Ori. Here, if we attack their position, we can think more in the line of one-on-one ratio, especially since we have many races on our side and coordination is still a problem," Jack said.

"This is not acceptable. While the Ori can quickly recuperate the losses and while they also don't care how many of their followers die, I'm not ready to send so many of our people to their deaths," Dmitri said.

"I'm not either, but I need options and I need them soon," Jack said, not liking the situation. "Carter! Can you pull one of your ideas from your… hat?"

"Actually, there is something I've thought about."

"You did? That's great! Am I going to like it?"

"Well, I thought about how we are planning to end the war on Quiril in general. So far we have focused our efforts to prepare our defenses and that's it."

"Well, the Ori are the ones who are attacking. We must first stop them and then start our offensive," Jack replied.

"Yes, but why? We know that the only thing keeping the Ori safe is the jamming signal that prevents us from beaming freely on the planet and their cannons that prevents us from taking our ships in orbit above their heads."

"You are thinking of sabotage?" Klaus asked as he understood where Sam was going with this.

"I do. The Ori haven't taken full control of the Quirilian population even in the capital and we could send spies who can easily blend with the locals and maybe even contact their resistance. From short wave radio transmissions we know there are underground groups in the capital still fighting the Ori at any chance they get."

"Even if we can infiltrate the capital, their cannons and the jamming system must be more than well defended. It's not like our spies can just walk right through their walls and place bombs."

"Actually, that is exactly what we _can_ do. Remember, you were the one who brokered the deal with the Tollans for their shifting technology."

"Oh, I forgot about that. In my mind I somehow think they will always say no to us, even when they say yes," Jack said, thinking how that had been the first time that the Tollans agreed to give them something and to this day he still wasn't certain if that had really happened or if it had just been a dream. "So we have a way to go through walls. That's a good tactical advantage, but is it enough?"

"I think it is, but we could also ask the Guardians to lend us a few cloaking devices. I don't think Liam would say no to this mission."

"Oh, no he'll help us alright, of that am sure. I'm more worried that he'll want to go with our spies to help in person."

"He would?" Daniel asked.

"Oh yeah. The last time I saw him he told me he really liked the mission on the Aschen homeworld, especially after things got a little dicey. I think he's becoming an adrenalin junky. He told me that if we want to go on a rescue mission to save Ambassador Faxon, we should take him with us since _'he knows a lot about their planet'_," Jack said while making the sign for quotations with both hands.

"Well, he's pretty tied up with the whole Senari ordeal, so maybe he won't be available."

"Maybe, we'll see," Jack said, already thinking about their next step. "Good idea Carter. It could save many lives if we are able to avoid a direct confrontation. Have we gone through everything we needed to discuss today?" Jack asked, waiting for all around the table to nod in confirmation. "Good. Carter, start working on incorporating the Tollan phase-shifting technology into our standard wristbands so that we can have a prototype ready as soon as possible. Klaus, pick two dozen of your craziest spies for this mission and prepare them as much as you can. I'm going to the Guardian outpost to get us some cloaking technology."

The present group nodded, quickly exiting the room and going their separate ways. Sam would go to Asura to work on the wristband in one of the many labs on the planet, Klaus would find two dozen black ops guys trained for such missions and Jack would try to get the same number of personal cloaking devices on the Guardian's Outpost, maybe even without the need to ask Liam directly. He still didn't like the idea of him going on the front line in enemy territory, even though, after having turned into an Alterran and after beginning to feel new vitality in him, Jack also wouldn't mind seeing some action firsthand.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**


	15. Behind the Curtain

**Author's note: Here's the next chapter, the chapter in which we finally find out something more about those pesky grey aliens who are making troubles in the Pegasus galaxy, as well as other things happening in both, the Pegasus and Milky Way galaxy.**

**Roddarz: **Thanks. Compliments in any form and quantity are always appreciated :) Since I'm not touching the Stargate Universe arc in my story, I thought there was nothing wrong in at least using the characters from the show instead of inventing new ones. So, yes, there'll be more characters from Destiny here. I'm not sure about the excitement ascended Wraith would bring. Anubis' story arc was mostly NOT about Anubis as a powerful individual because he wasn't able to do anything in person and nobody could do anything to him. That said, I do plan to expand on the Wraith, more than what it had been shown in the show. Maybe add some information on how and why they came to be, add new tactics, and not just by building more ships and that's it. Well, you'll find out soon enough.

**Senrab Nomis:** The war has left the Jaffa and especially the Lucians in need of rebuilding if they want to even stand a chance against an enemy like the Aschen, but the Jaffa are warriors, and a very impatient race too, so...

The Ori arrived on the planet with a fleet, transporting troops and anything else they needed to take the planet. Once they found the buried gate, things got even easier for them to bring whatever they need, and the Terrans are facing a difficult opponent to take out with the conventional brute force approach alone. Sabotage has risks, but it also depends on what kind of sabotage. Sometimes, even cutting the right wire is enough, with no need to destroy a good chunk of the planet to succeed in taking out their defenses. The Ori will have... one backup in place. One with long term repercussions.

The Aschen are actually very much oblivious of anything related to the Terrans. If only fleet strength was concerned the Aschen could not face even the Terrans alone in battle, much less the entire Second Great Alliance. But since when has this stopped anyone. And the Aschen are sneaky too. They don't really like direct confrontations anyway. Earth is too well defended too to take it out directly. But you know what they say. Where there is a will, there is a way. ;)

With the Leptinians this was exactly my idea. It is easy to understand what other humans want, hence being capable of predicting their actions, but what if you face a race that you don't understand, what if that race has completely different goals? The Leptinians do have a grudge against humans apparently. Why, well, that's for the story to tell.

**HellsMaji: **I see you were quick at catching up with the story. Unfortunately for you, writing is much slower than reading, so from now on you'll have to survive with one chapter a week. Sorry, but there's nothing I can do about that.

**EvilTheLast:** Thanks.

**Josiah275:** Why are you under the impression I'm not hurrying already ;) Well, if maybe I didn't have to work my daily job to get frivolous stuff like food and clothing, maybe if my car suddenly decides to run on air and my landlord decides that rent doesn't have to be paid after all, then maybe I could write more; I like it more than my job anyway. But until that happens, unfortunately, one chapter a week will have to do. Sorry about that.

**E. S. Asher:** Hopefully I was able to answer your questions in the PM I sent you.

**Thanks to my beta, and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well.**

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Dakara  
**_Stardate: 2492.45_

Stepping through the gate on Dakara, Jack was greeted by Teal'c and Bra'tac who had been patiently awaiting his arrival. Greeting both of them in the usual Jaffa style, the small group proceeded further away from the gate and toward the main building where the rest of the council was awaiting them in order to start the meeting they had requested.

"O'Neill, can you please tell Teal'c that now is not the time to leave the council?" Bra'tac asked while still looking straight ahead.

"Teal'c, now is not the time to leave the council," Jack deadpanned.

Teal'c turned to face Jack with an eyebrow raised.

"He just told me what to tell you," Jack answered to the unspoken question. "Why are you leaving the Council anyway?"

"I want to be the one to lead the fight against the Aschen."

"Ah."

"He believes he will be more useful as a warrior than by serving on the council," Bra'tac added.

"Will he?"

"Most certainly his expertise would be of great use to our fleet, but there is still much that needs to be done on the council and him leaving now can set us back on what we are trying to achieve," Bra'tac answered.

"Teal'c, do you really believe that you're needed more elsewhere or you're just fed up with sitting all day or, in your case, standing all day in the council's chamber discussing things?"

Teal'c again looked at Jack with a raised eyebrow, "I have to admit, being on the council is not how I envisioned my future, but this is not the reason why I am leaving. I believe the war against the Aschen will not be as easy as many believe and we will need all possible advantages in order to lead our fleet to victory."

Jack thought about how to best answer to Teal'c. "I understand Teal'c and under normal circumstances I would probably say go for it, but in this case I have to disagree."

"Explain," Teal'c said, this time with raised eyebrow number seven. Teal'c had many different ways to raise his eyebrow, and this one was convening his complete obliviousness on where Jack was going with this.

"Simply put, you don't have to change your job description right now, because there will be no war against the Aschen in the first place."

Now Jack received raised eyebrows from both Teal'c and Bra'tac, with Teal'c being the first to say something. "Why do you say there will be no war?"

"Don't get me wrong, there will be a war against the Aschen, just not now. We have our hands full with a whole bunch of threats in so many galaxies that I can barely remember them all and you still need to rebuild your forces after the war against the Lucians. Even with the help you're getting from the Hebridians, now is not the time to start another war Teal'c, not yet at least."

"Do you believe the Aschen will have the same consideration towards us?" Bra'tac asked.

"Probably not, and I do think we should prepare ourselves for possible attacks from the Aschen, but you all saw the images Liam sent us. Their planet is like a fortress and a direct assault against them won't be that easy, not if we don't want to have massive losses on our side too. And with the Ori and others threatening us, we simply can't risk it."

"The Aschen have openly attacked one of your ships, did they not? As you would say, the gloves have been taken off. There is no reason to expect the Aschen are not already planning something against us," Teal'c said, believing an Aschen attack had now become a certainty and only a matter of time.

"And I believe the FJN will be the first to be targeted," Bra'tac added.

"Why do you thing that? Why not attack the Terrans first?" Jack asked, even though he knew why.

"Because they must know by now their ploy to destroy us by using the Lucians has failed and they must know we will come for them. They also must still believe the Ori are a greater threat and that, for now at least, leaving you to fight them is best for them as well," Bra'tac explained.

"Bra'tac I share your concern and I do think there is a chance they'll come after you first, but you're missing one important piece of the puzzle," Jack said, pausing for a moment. "If the Aschen come after you, they won't attack you with ships. They'll use their bioweapons. We are more than certain they had access to the Tok'ra symbiote poison and even with the majority of your people now on the Tretonin drug, they can still do a lot of damage with that weapon alone, not to mention the other bioweapons that I'm sure they can come up with. There is also the problem that we don't have a lot of targets to work with, have we? There is their homeworld, and that's it!"

"You're wrong O'Neill. There is somewhere else we can hurt them," Teal'c replied.

Jack didn't know where Teal'c was going with this. As far as he knew, Aschen Prime was the only planet with actual Aschen on it, "Oh, I'm so not going to like this, am I?"

"We know the Aschen are heavily reliant on the other planets in their confederation for food. Take those worlds from them and their food supply will be greatly diminished."

As predicted, Jack didn't particularly like what Teal'c was proposing, but it was true that this was one weakness they could exploit. Even more, if successful, it would force the Aschen to spread their forces to protect those planets in the future. Still, "Teal'c don't you think this will only serve to escalate things, and you can't possibly believe you can take those planets and be able to guard them once the Aschen show up with their fleet."

"We do not intend to take their planets permanently. We will destroy their crops and, if possible, take their gates from the planet. The gates and the crops the Aschen are tending are something the small local population does not use."

"I don't know Teal'c. If the Aschen are not planning to attack you, _yet_, and if you do this, they'll attack you for certain."

"We are going with the assumption they are going to attack us in any case, so we have no reason to wait," Bra'tac answered before Teal'c could.

As the group continued their walk to the council's chamber, Jack spent this time thinking how things were not going as he thought they would. The reason why he came here was to convince the Jaffa to wait before plunging into yet another war with an even more formidable enemy, but as he heard the two Jaffa escorting him talk with such conviction, he wasn't sure he'd be able to convince the Jaffa council to wait. There was also the problem that he didn't know for how long they would need to wait, even if they agreed to do so, since the war with the Ori was only at the beginning, with no clear end in sight. Also, asking the Jaffa to wait indefinitely wasn't such an easy thing to accomplish, if not impossible.

As they entered the council's chamber, the conversation began with Jack quickly understanding he wouldn't be able to persuade them. In the end, the only thing he could do was to promise that if some of the many battles they were currently fighting somehow ended, the Terrans would divert some of their assets to help them in the war against the Aschen.

Having failed in his attempt to convince the council, Jack spent another ten minutes trying to convince Teal'c to stay on the council, but he had failed on that front as well. Not having anything else to add, Jack returned to Earth to give the bad news to the rest of the council.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**_Stardate:2494.45_

Inside Jack's office, he, Daniel and Klaus were discussing the latest regarding the Aschen and the FJN apparent resolve to take the fight back to them. They wanted them to pay for the many deaths the symbiote poison had caused and for the many more that had died fighting a war against the Lucians that did not have to happen at all.

"I'm telling you, there's no way to convince the Jaffa to wait. If I wasn't able to convince Teal'c and Bra'tac, you can imagine how successful I was with the rest of the council," Jack stated, recollecting the events that had transpired on Dakara.

"I don't like the way they are going to fight the Aschen. It will only piss them off," Klaus said, thoughtfully.

"Maybe I can go and give it a try. Maybe they'll listen to me," Daniel said, although, even he was more than certain he wouldn't be able to do much to change their minds. After all, if they weren't prepared to listen to an Ancient, even though the Ancient in question was Jack, there was probably no one who could change their collective minds.

"Daniel, you are free to try, but I wouldn't put too much hope in changing their minds," Jack added.

"Well, if their decision is final, then we have to change our stance too. We'll be soon embroiled in their war no matter if we want it or not, or if we are ready for it for that matter," Klaus said, not liking it, but he didn't know what else could they do, and simply burying their head in the sand and hoping for the best wasn't an option.

"Are you really suggesting we divert resources to fight the Aschen? Because, I should remind you, we are already strained as it is," Jack said. How could they add yet another front to the already pretty long list?

"Not right away no, but we should learn more about what we are up against. That's the least we _must_ do," Klaus continued with his line of thought.

"If you have an idea that doesn't involve diverting an entire fleet to this task, I'm very much open to hear it," Jack stated.

"As a matter of fact, I have something that will give us a better knowledge of what we are up against and it doesn't require diverting more than one or maybe two ships," Klaus said.

"I'm listening."

"Well, from what we know from Liam and from the battle between the Apollo and their cruisers, we know that the Aschen ships are more formidable opponents than a Ha'tak is, but the information we have is sketchy at best. From the logs of the Apollo we know our ship wasn't able to penetrate their shields and that their weapons were pretty powerful. Granted, the Apollo wasn't in the best of conditions because it had spent half an hour prior to their arrival near a neutron star and its shields were already weakened, but even so, I think we need to learn more about the Aschen ships than what we know now," Klaus explained.

"You didn't take into account the Apollo hasn't been retrofitted yet."

"I'm aware of that, but I think it doesn't matter. We need to find out more if we want to be able to come up with an adequate strategy to fight them or we risk entering into a battle with a less than adequate fleet."

"Alright, you have a point here, but how do you think we should achieve this?" Jack asked, dreading the answer.

"We board one of their ships," Klaus deadpanned.

And the last Klaus' sentence confirmed it. He knew there was a reason he was dreading the answer. "Oh well, why you didn't just say that in the first place? It's so easy I don't know why I didn't come up with it sooner," Jack replied sardonically.

"Please Jack, give me some credit. I wasn't suggesting a brute force approach. I think we should take something from the Wraith rulebook for this mission."

"Wraith? Now I'm lost too," Daniel added, with Jack nodding in complete agreement.

"Do you remember what happened to the Daedalus at the beginning of the second year of the Atlantis expedition, when they were returning Doctor Weir, Sheppard and the other _Atlanteans_ to the Pegasus galaxy?" Klaus asked, waiting for any sign of them remembering.

"No," Daniel replied quickly.

"The ship was infested with a Wraith virus, sort of AI capable of taking control of the ship's systems," Jack said, recalling the events that had happened more than four years ago. Seeing the widened eyes on both, Klaus and Daniel looking at him with puzzlement, bordering with fear, he continued. "What?"

"How can you possibly remember that?" Daniel asked, believing that Jack hadn't even read the report regarding that mission.

Jack thought about it, remembering a day a long time ago, with him seating in the mess hall, eating a vanilla pudding and Carter explaining how fascinating the Wraith virus was, especially its ability to mutate to suit its needs. "I remember Carter explaining how the virus works. We were in the mess hall and I was eating pudding. You were there too Daniel. You looked bored," Again Jack received glares from both of them. "What?"

"How can you possibly remember what happened in the mess hall four years ago? For that matter, how is it possible that you listened to what Sam was saying?"

"I don't know Daniel. Recently, I'm able to remember a lot of things. Actually, I'm able to remember everything, even stuff that I would very much like to forget; _that_ conversation included."

"Of course! You have an eidetic memory now," Klaus said.

"Yeah, that's what Liam said too. Apparently, all Alterrans have perfect recall," Jack said, not very enthusiastic about it. With everything Jack had gone through, the ability to forget things was actually a blessing. Thankfully, Liam also told him that, with practice, he would be able to control what memories to bring on the forefront as well as the ability to place others, unwanted memories, in a sort of mental locker. An ability that apparently all Alterrans learn as children. "Can we go back to talking about the Wraith virus and what it has to do with our current problem?"

"For some time now, we have worked on the virus to provide us with a possible cyber-attack against whatever enemy is threatening us and we came up with an AI virus of our own that can serve for many different purposes. If a ship is infected with our version of the virus, the virus could remain dormant in their system, spread to other ships, relay information we want, sabotage the ship or even take control."

"And you believe this virus you've created can infect an Aschen ship and take control without them being able to do anything to stop it?" Jack asked, still not fully convinced.

"I can't be completely certain, but I believe the virus would at least be able to shut down their systems for a short period of time, enough for, let's say, a couple of our teams to beam on their ship unnoticed."

"Wait, wait, I'm missing something here. What happens to our teams the moment the Aschen regain control of their ship? They would be detected and quickly overwhelmed by Aschen security. Security by the way we don't know anything about. As far as we know, they could have automated weapons on their ships," Jack asked, not liking the idea of sending people in a possible mousetrap.

"First, I believe that even when they regain control of their ship, the virus will still be able to provide support for our teams by disabling the sensors and helping them access important sections of the ship. And second, I'm planning for our teams to take the Tok'ra masking agent to hide their life signs, which should give them the ability to wander around the ship for 24 hours without being detected even in case the virus is not able to achieve the same."

"And you're sure the Aschen don't have ways to detect the virus? After all, they have pretty advanced technology at their disposal."

Klaus smiled, "Actually, their advanced technology may very well work to our advantage. More advanced systems are usually better integrated, which can very well facilitate the virus spreading much faster, and we know the Aschen have never before faced Wraith code, so, we can be pretty sure they don't have countermeasures for that specific virus."

"So you think the Aschen system will be even more susceptible to our virus?"

"Well, think about it. We were able to clear the Daedalus from the virus only because we had relatively low computer tech on the ship, and because we don't trust our systems the Daedalus had backups which was the only way to erase the virus. Also, our systems were not as integrated as I suspect the Aschen systems are. I bet the Aschen are so confident in their technology that they don't even have separate backups in case of complete system crash like we have and their system must be much better integrated together than ours."

"That does make some sense when you think about it," Daniel said. "Look at the Asgard and how easily the Replicators were able to take control of their systems. The Asgard too were confident in their superior technology and as a result all of their systems are tightly connected with each other. That allowed the replicators to practically access all of their ship's systems from every console or even a simple cable in a wall. A human form replicator was once able to access the ship's systems from the beam when Thor tried to transport it outside the ship."

"Alright, alright, I get the point," Jack said, fed up with talks about systems, consoles, viruses and especially about the defunct replicators. "How do you intend to infect one of their ships?"

"That's easy. I have intel that the Aschen are very interested in P3X-768 and I can bet they have a ship in orbit. By just contacting them and pretending we want to open peaceful negotiations, we can send them the virus unnoticed."

"Alright, I have no clue where P something dash something else is, but I don't think it's important for me to know that either. If you're sure that it is so easy to infect their ship, then you have a green light to proceed. What ship or ships did you have in mind for the mission?"

"I was thinking we should use the Enterprise as the ship to make contact and to transfer the virus. The ship is big enough to give the Aschen pause if their first thought is to attack it the moment it exits hyperspace. The second ship will be a Hades class stealth frigate with at least three or four teams on board. The ship will already be in the system under its cloak and they will shadow the Aschen ship until the virus activates, even after the Enterprise leaves."

"I can live with that. One BS and one SF it is then," Jack said, really liking the prospect of getting their hands on an Aschen ship. Knowing what the enemy ship can and cannot do could very well help them win the war without having to divert large numbers of ships to fight the Aschen. "Daniel, if you want, you can go to Dakara and try to convince…"

"No, I'm not going. I too believe there's no way to convince the Jaffa to wait," Daniel answered, breaking Jack in mid-sentence.

"Alright then. I'll contact Captain Donovan on the Enterprise and tell her to be ready when you are. I have some paperwork to do now."

"More paperwork Jack," Daniel said looking at the small pile on the left side of his table.

"Yeah, but it turns out that, if you do them every day, reports don't get piled up that much," Jack said, again seeing the dubious expression on the faces of the two other people in the room. "What?"

"Nothing," Daniel answered, quickly turning and leaving. "See ya."

As Klaus went his way too, Jack took a report from his desk and started reading it as if it was the normal routine for him to do so, with no wish to leave his office in whatever direction that wasn't in here whatsoever. Apparently Jack didn't mind doing paperwork anymore; at least for now. How long it would last, it was a completely different story.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Unknown location  
**_stardate:2499.53_

Under the command of Colonel Gibbons, the BC-304 Atlas sailed smoothly through hyperspace on its way to a remote system in the Pegasus galaxy. After Rodney had told John the satellites were able to pick up a hyperspace window with the same pattern as the grey aliens' ship had created, and after the patrol comprised of six Athena assault frigates had confirmed the most probable system the grey aliens had visited, from the reading, even more than once, John didn't waste any time, taking the first available ship at his disposal in order to check it out. He was eager to find them and make them pay for what they had done. More than just attacking the space station, they made him look bad; and he really didn't like looking bad.

The ship decelerated while exiting hyperspace, quickly coming to a full stop only light-seconds in front of a planet. It was here the last time one of the frigates had with its long range sensors detected a hyperspace window opening with the same signature the alien ship had previously made.

"What do we have on sensors?" Gibbons asked.

"Nothing sir. There are no ships in the system and the planet doesn't have anything unusual. There is also no breathable air on the planet," the sensor officer replied.

Gibbons nodded in understanding, "So, General, what do we do now?"

"Nothing. The frigates picked up hyperspace windows opening in this system multiple times, which means the aliens are for some reason visiting this place very often," John answered. They now just needed to wait.

Not long after Sheppard answered to Gibbons, Rodney entered the bridge, "Are we done here?"

"We just got here Rodney," Sheppard replied tersely. "And why the hell are you wearing your exoskeleton armor?"

"Why? Because every time I go somewhere with you somebody shoots at us, and there is always less than a minute to find a brilliant plan to save us all before we all die, that's why!" Rodney explained his reasoning for wanting to wear the armored suit. "I don't think I'll have the time to dress and, oh, I don't know, probably stop a reactor's breach in ten seconds."

"Always the pessimist Rodney. There is no one even here. The system is empty."

"Oh, now it's empty, but the moment I get my armor off, a dozen ships will show up, blowing us all to pieces. We will somehow get captured and imprisoned and…"

"Rodney, stop it! And take that thing off. You look ridiculous with that helmet here on the bridge."

"Fine!" Rodney replied. He did feel a little claustrophobic wearing that thing.

"Contact!"

"Oh, I haven't even taken my helmet off and they are already here," Rodney stated, depressingly.

"Shut up Rodney! Now is not the time," Sheppard replied before turning back to the sensors officers to hear more important things like what was happening outside.

"We have one ship bearing on our position. They have raised shields and powered weapons," the sensor officer said.

"Raise shields and bring the weapons online," Gibbons ordered, knowing full well there will be no talk with these aliens.

As the slightly larger enemy vessel entered weapons range, it opened fire spitting some kind of green energy bolts.

"Weapons, I want that ship disabled," Gibbons ordered while feeling the hits impacting the ship's shields.

The Atlas opened fire with its beam weapons in a grazing manner. When the idea is to disable the enemy ship rather than destroying it, the plasma beams were not the ideal weapon. Because of it, the weapons officer had to graze the shields in an attempt to deplete them, minimizing the risk of piercing through them and the ship's hull in one shot. This way, even if the beam would pierce the shield, it wouldn't hit the hull.

Hitting the enemy ship's shields several more times, the shield collapsed, exposing the hull to further attacks. Switching from plasma beams to more _delicate _weapons, as in the railguns and plasma repeaters, the weapons officer peppered the enemy ship's hull, targeting the weapons and propulsion systems.

The alien vessel was rocked by explosions on its outer hull, but it was apparent they were still not ready to surrender. From a small starboard opening, a row of fighters exited the ship on their way to the Atlas. While still continuing to hit the ship with the plasma repeaters, the weapons officer began using the railguns to fire at the incoming enemy fighters.

As many of the fighters exploded while on their approach, others continued on their course. The people on the bridge quickly understood they were going to ram them at full speed. Foolish tactic with the powerful Asgard shields fully powered. At least that was until they witnessed several of the fighters passing through them and impacting the ship's hull.

"What happened?" Gibbons yelled, as he felt the ship shake from the impacts.

"The alien fighters somehow managed to pass through our shields. They have lodged into the ship's hull," the officer manning the sensors replied.

John had a slight feeling of déjà vu, "Check internal sensors if we've been boarded."

Gibbons looked at him strangely, but didn't say anything. He just waited for the same officer to reply.

"We have. Our sensors are showing alien life signs inside the ship," the officer replied.

"How is this possible? Our shields should have stopped them from reaching the hull?" Gibbons asked.

Rodney was also worried about that fact. An alien race capable of bypassing their shields in such a manner, when even the drones would have trouble achieving that same feat, was of great concern. Quickly working on a nearby station, he scrolled through the sensor logs to see what had happened. "That's impossible!"

"What's impossible Rodney?" John asked.

"From the sensor logs, the alien fighters were able to mimic our shields a split second before touching them.

"Are you saying they are using the same technology the drones use to pass through shields?" John asked, dreading the answer.

"No, it's worse. They were able to mimic Asgard shields specifically even before they touched them. The drones detect the shields upon contact. This aliens knew that in advance and that as far as I know is impossible."

"Why?"

"Because it means they know the exact configuration of our shields and that is something that only we and the Asgard who designed them know."

"We will have to discuss this later. Right now we need to contain the breach," John said, deciding that discussing how they did it could wait. "Colonel, while you take care of the enemy outside the ship, I'm going to take care of those already inside. Rodney, you are going with me."

"Why do you need me?"

"Because you put your armor on, that's why. Now, let's go." John said, motioning to Rodney to start moving.

"Oh, I knew this would happen," Rodney said, not very happy at the prospect of chasing these aliens.

John and Rodney went out, on their way to the closest armory. Except for Rodney's handgun, they were without weapons. Taking Rodney's weapon, John took point, quickly moving through the various corridors. Thankfully, they didn't stumble on any angry aliens on their way. Entering the armory, John began sifting through the various weapons inside. He took two TR-X1 rifles, giving one to Rodney. There was no time to wear the armor. As much as they were great, the thing was impossible to dress in minutes and he didn't have more time than that.

Finally armed, John again took point and went out of the armory and into the corridor. Rodney, who was following closely behind, noticed one of the aliens peeking on the far end of the corridor, aiming at John. Instinctively, Rodney jumped, pushing John out of the way and getting a blast in his shoulder as reward. As John stumbled on the floor, he quickly regained his bearings, shooting at the affronting alien. A rapid burst from his rifle, riddled the alien with bullets, the alien slumping onto the floor the next instant. Getting up, he noticed Rodney on the floor.

"Rodney, are you alright?" John asked, worriedly.

"Yeah-yeah, I think I am. It didn't go through my armor," Rodney said, checking his shoulder.

While Rodney was getting up, John received a message from the bridge. The aliens were on their way to the engine room. The bridge had activated the emergency forcefields to prevent the aliens from reaching it, but it was only a matter of time before they would breach it. The Colonel also informed John that the LPS, as in Legacy Protection System, was getting _antsy _as Gibbons had explained it. The system had detected an intrusion, and if the intruders were not taken care of soon, it would start shutting down access to sensitive areas as well as entire systems.

The last thing John needed was a system trying to lock everything down while they were fighting an enemy inside the ship as well as outside of it. "We must move Rodney. We need to reach the engine room before they can breach inside.

"Aren't there other teams that can do that?" Rodney asked, clearly wanting to stay here or in any case somewhere where there were no aliens around.

"You do something heroic and then you start whining. You have a very contradicting personality you know that."

"Well, the heroic part is usually when I don't have time to think. When I have the time on the other hand, I can clearly imagine the many ways I could die, hence the whining."

"Then stop thinking. We have no time for it anyway," John said, already moving down the corridor.

"Easier said than done," Rodney said, not that enthusiastic, before following John.

Several corridors and a trip with the elevator later, and the two of them reached the engine room's floor. Even from their current position, they could hear the distinctively alien weapons firing from several corridors further away. John knew they were firing at the forcefield in front of the engine room.

Moving silently, they reached the last corridors where three aliens were shooting at the engine room door and the forcefield tightly in front of it. He motioned to Rodney to prepare for what was to happen, with his fingers counting from three, then two, then one.

Both of them burst out from hiding, firing at the three aliens who were still preoccupied with the door. Riddled with bullets, the three aliens fell onto the floor, dead.

"You see. It wasn't that difficult, was it?" John said, seeing that Rodney still had a tight grip on his rifle, even though the one sided firefight was long over.

"If you say so," Rodney said, but Sheppard was already listening to his comm. unit.

"Colonel Gibbons just informed me the other teams were able to kill all the other intruders and there are no more enemy fighters around the ship. Let's get back to the bridge, but first I need to get my armor on."

"Why do you need your armor now that it is over? Oh, don't tell me. We are going to the alien ship, aren't we?"

"Of course Rodney. Why do you think I took _you_ on this mission? I need you to access the various systems on board their ship as fast as possible."

"Yeah, I had the feeling you would say that," Rodney said, not liking where this was going.

Quickly moving back, the two of them first stopped to the armory so that John could wear his armor, before proceeding to the bridge.

"Is the boarding party ready?" John asked Gibbons the moment he stepped on the bridge.

"It is. You have five teams, plus the two of you. Two raptors are waiting for you in the hangar," the captain replied.

"Good. We need to be quick if…" John began saying, but he was stopped by a large explosion coming from outside and through the frontal view. The alien ship had just exploded in million pieces.

"What the…" John continued.

"The ship must have activated its self-destruct," the sensor officer replied.

"Damn it!" John shouted. "We needed that ship intact."

All this had been for nothing. With the ship gone they couldn't learn anything useful here. The system was also barren, probably only a stop point to some other place and they didn't know where.

Without anything else to do, the crew quickly made the necessary repairs before entering hyperspace on their way back to Atlantis.

Suffice it to say, John wasn't pleased with the outcome.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Planet bellow  
**_stardate:2500.31_

On the planet's surface, a large dome stood hidden by the inhospitable and toxic atmosphere of the planet. Inside the dome, a small but very advanced city was present, visibly of Asgard design.

Inside the tallest tower, on the top floor, a single Vanr, Njoror, looked intently at the large frontal display, showing the battle in space. He wasn't pleased. Even with the ability to bypass the shields of the Terran ship, their minions were not able to win the battle. Even worse, their ship had also been disabled. The Terrans were showing advanced technologies at their disposal, clearly of Aesir origin no doubt.

With no other option at his disposal, Njoror sent a short data burst and the next instant the larger ship of the two in orbit exploded in million pieces. There was not much data on the ship the Terrans might find useful, but inspection of the vessel would be enough for them to understand the similar technologies to those of the Aesir. Maybe the Terrans would not make the connection, but the Aesir would most certainly understand that the Vanir were behind the creation of the ship.

While Njoror was looking at the explosion, Frayja entered the room, "What happened?"

"The Terrans were able to win the battle in space. I had no choice but to destroy the ship," Njoror replied.

"Were they also able to detect the city?" Freyja asked.

"No they were not. They are leaving the system," Njoror replied.

Freyja was shaking her head, "I told you, the attack on their space station was not a smart move. They are now on a war path."

"Doing nothing would have been even worse, and I did not think they would succeed in protecting the station. If the Aesir ship didn't show up when it did, we would have succeeded in undermining their attempt to unify the galaxy," Njoror said.

"But the plan _did_ fail," Freyja stated the obvious.

"Indeed," Njoror replied calmly. He knew Freyja meant it as an accusation.

"We should have contacted the Aesir and asked them for help. Now, that option is not available to us anymore," Frayja said, thinking that her brother Freyr would have helped them, but if they contacted them now there was a good chance they would be able to connect the dots and that would be catastrophic.

"Indeed," Njoror replied, slightly annoyed.

"And going to war with the Terrans and the Aesir is… inadvisable."

"Indeed," Njoror replied, now very much annoyed.

"The Wraith are no more, we could leave this planet and start anew?"

"And how do you propose we continue our experiments on humans in order to find a cure?"

"I do not have an answer to that question… short of asking our cousins. They must have found some way of prolonging their life."

"They probably have, but what would be the consequence of contacting them?"

"I do not have an answer to that question. Do you believe the Terrans will monitor this system?"

"There is no evidence they will, but I cannot be certain."

"We need to be careful now."

"I know."

"And we need to make a decision soon."

"I know," Njoror replied, by now really pissed at her. Even her brother Freyr had never been so petulant.

Freyja must have understood in what mood he was in, because she left the room without saying a single word.

Njoror sighed. This wasn't good. When the Terrans had begun attacking the Wraith, the Vanir had thought their long seclusion was finally coming to an end and that they would finally be able to continue with their research on humans without the constant threat of the Wraith, but as it had turned out, the Terrans had relocated many worlds with human populations and most of the rest were guarded by satellites. There was no way they could indiscriminately perform genetic research on humans now. Even worse, the Aesir, their long lost brethren, were involved and they didn't know what their reaction would be if they simply showed up.

Fighting them, as Freyja suggested, was inadvisable. They had many foot soldiers and ships they were planning to use against the Wraith, but a victory against the combined forces of the Terrans and the Asgard was far from being assured. And if they lose, they lose everything.

With that last thought, Njoror walked out of the large control room. The council would need to reconvene and discuss this matter further, but not today. He had enough excitement for one day.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Space Station  
**_stardate:2512.73_

Weir exited the main turbo-lift on the Embassy Level of the large Terran space station. This was her first visit to the space station since the opening ceremony and she was really impressed from what she'd seen so far. Of course Atlantis and Asura were marvels of technology that she had gotten accustomed to, but from the moment she had stepped on to the station, she felt a sense of pride at what her people had managed to build. After all, the station was their achievement and not someone else's that they simply inhabited.

Walking out of the elevator, she found Woolsey already waiting for her. "Richard, nice place you have here."

"I couldn't agree more Elizabeth. How was your voyage?" Woolsey asked.

"A little strange to have to take a ship to reach the station instead of simply stepping through the gate, but for the rest, it was alright."

"Yes, the gate system indeed tends to make us believe everything can be reached by just stepping through it, no matter if our destination is even a galaxy far away, but apparently the powers that be believe that having a stargate on the station is a security risk, the same as beaming technology. Thankfully, they are planning to add a ring platform on the planet's surface and on the station in the near future. There's no race that uses them in this galaxy, so they believe it won't be a security risk."

"I have to agree with them on the gate being a security risk Richard. On many occasions Atlantis had been threatened through the gate and we know from firsthand experience that there are technologies that can trigger a stargate to explode. Having such a device in the middle of a space station can be dangerous. There's talk of disabling the gate in Atlantis for the same reason and use the other one on the mainland."

"Really? I wasn't aware of that. You really think that will happen?"

"Don't know; still weighing the pros and cons."

"Well, if you think about it, having a gate that directly brings someone in the control room of the most advanced piece of technology we know of, does sound like a security risk."

"Maybe, but I think this is not important for our current predicament, is it?" Weir said, wanting to start discussing the real reason for her being here.

"Unfortunately no, it isn't."

"What's the problem Richard?"

"The problem is the many human races on the station getting strange ideas, that's the problem. Somehow they got into their heads that we owe them," Woolsey replied.

After the new security precautions had been put in place, not all but many alien races had left rather than comply with the new rules, but human races have remained on the station, their planets locations already known in any case. And they apparently were not happy.

Weir smiled, "Of course they did. What is it this time?"

"Well, they are stating that, since we were the ones who awoke the Wraith, we are directly responsible for whatever happened afterwards as a direct result. And I'm not talking about the Wraith getting beaten; I'm talking about the culling that followed after the Wraith awoke ahead of time."

Weir sighed, "Alright, now tell me the reason why they are bringing this accusations, the real reason. They must want something."

"They are trying to leverage us in giving them technology that would bring them on par with other races around the galaxy. From the moment this station became operational, it became apparent that alien races capable of space travel have the advantage over others in negotiations and trades simply because they possess more advanced technologies to offer," Woolsey said, thinking how it was true that all human races in the Pegasus galaxy except the Travelers were more or less on a very low technological level.

"I'm not sure this is reason enough for bringing such accusations since I'm not really sure how much they expect from us."

"We have the ability to progress them much faster if we choose to and they are trying to force us with some futile accusations, the only way they really can, since under normal circumstance there is no way we would give them what they want."

"Is there a chance the Genii are behind this?"

"Strangely, no. As far as I know the Genii are keeping to themselves. There are also rumors they have been able to broker a deal with another alien race to get their hands on a spaceship and some other things."

"Really? What could they possibly have had to offer in order to gain such technology?"

"I think they gave the aliens a planet, but again, these are only rumors."

"Huh, that would do it, and the Genii do have planets to spare. So what, now the Genii have a spaceship to play with?"

"More than that. They received knowledge far beyond their current level as well as the ship. They are reverse engineering the ship so they can start building their own, and not just use the one they have acquired."

"Well, it appears that the Genii _are_ after all behind this little problem we are having here," Weir stated, thinking of something.

On the other hand, Woolsey was clueless on what she meant by that. "I don't understand."

"Richard, by gaining access to a spaceship and other advanced technologies the Genii have created a massive shift in power among the human races in the Pegasus galaxy. Up until now the human races were more or less on par except for us and the Travelers, and they didn't have to worry about the Travelers since they are keeping for themselves, spending most of their time on their ships and not bothering anyone."

"And the Genii are the only ones who have an entire planet to trade for such technology, something the other races cannot do. I get it now."

"We know other human races fear the Genii and I have to admit, now that the Genii are gaining more advanced technologies they are right to fear them."

"And what is the solution to this problem?"

"Richard, I just got here. I don't have a solution, not yet anyway."

The two diplomats fell silent for a few moments while stepping inside the conference room where several human representatives had been waiting for their arrival. Weir immediately saw the Manarian representative Smedeon, a man she had met before and a man she didn't like very much. After Smedeon had sold them out to the Genii more than five years ago, they paid him a visit and both Weir and Sheppard had explained to Smedeon that what they did would not be forgotten and if they were to do something similar ever again, the Manarians would find out how it is a very bad idea to make an enemy of the Terrans. After that first _misunderstanding, _their relation continued without any major incident, but they could hardly call their relation as being friendly.

Except for the Manarian representative, she saw, Shiana of the planet Santhal, Kelore of the planet Lathira and Dimas of the planet Riva. Apparently, the humans of the Pegasus galaxy had come up with a nice coalition with some of the larger human races in the galaxy. Weir thought how this could be a very difficult meeting and the people in the room looked pretty determined to get something from it.

Weir sat on one of the many chairs around the table, with Woolsey sitting next to her. Intentionally she began reading the thick folder in front of her, waiting to see for how long the representatives would remain silent while waiting for her to finish whatever they thought she was doing. She didn't have to wait for long though.

"Are we going to start the discussion or not?" Smedeon said with apparent arrogance in his voice.

Weir stopped looking at the folder in front of her, facing the man who spoke. "Mister… Smedeon, I believe?" she asked, waiting for him to nod. "I'm sorry, but I was only recently informed of this little problem we are apparently having. If you wish, you can start explaining what the problem is. That way, I won't have to read this document."

"The matter is simple. We believe that your direct actions from the moment you first arrived in this galaxy have resulted in many planets having been culled ahead of time and we believe some accountability for that is in order."

"Really? What do you exactly mean by accountability?" Weir asked, even though she had a pretty good idea.

"Due to your actions the planets that were culled should receive compensation from you."

"I see," Weir said thoughtfully.

"My planet was culled three years ago, culling that caused the loss of innocent lives and the destruction of a good portion of our infrastructure," Smedeon continued.

"Mr. Smedeon, if I recall correctly, _we_ were the ones who forewarned you about the Wraith coming to your planet. And because of it, you were able to relocate most of your people to another planet before the Wraith showed up. Once the Wraith left your planet, your people were able to safely return to it, all with our help if I recall it correctly."

"This is irrelevant to this discussion. The damage has been done as a direct result of the Wraith having awoken ahead of time and this fact is indisputable."

"Alright, although I do not feel we are responsible for what happened because of what the Wraith did or didn't do, let's say that we are ready to help you rebuild your infrastructure as a token of our friendship."

"That won't be enough."

"I'm sorry?"

"A proper compensation for such losses can only be achieved if you are willing to give us technology so that we can progress much faster. A way for us to be on the same level with the other more advanced races in this galaxy, and we also believe that if you are truly the real successor of our Ancestors, as you claim, this is something you should have already done regardless. And if you are not their successors, then you have no place living in their city, in which case we, their true successors, should be allowed to take your place."

Apparently they thought about this a lot, trying in any way possible to force them to give them what they wanted. Weir needed to cut this nonsense quickly and decisively. "First of all, Mr. Smedeon, the ownership of Atlantis is not, and it will never be, a topic of our conversation. Second, your statement that, since we are the successors of your Ancestors, we should progress you is ludicrous because as far as we know the Ancestors themselves never progressed any race in this galaxy," Weir said, intentionally omitting the fact that what they called Ancestors were actually the Lanteans and not the real Ancients, the Alterrans. She really didn't want to go there and explain who was who. "Also, we should stop with this whole charade, since we know the real reason why you are asking us for technologies that are beyond your current level. This is especially the case for you Mr. Smedeon since it is extremely insulting to me that five years ago you sold us out to the Genii when you thought you would get something from them in return and now when you are afraid of the Genii having gained advanced technology, far more superior than what you have, you come accusing us so that you would get something from us this time. Your action five years ago almost resulted in the destruction of Atlantis. Do you really want to talk about accountability?"

Shiana turned to face Smedeon with disbelief. "Is this true?"

"What happened five years ago is irrelevant and the city wasn't destroyed."

"No thanks to you Mr. Smedeon. If we weren't able to repel the Genii attack, the city would have been destroyed by a massive storm. It was only luck that saved the city."

Shiana thought how apparently they have chosen the wrong spokesman to start this conversation. She was also startled that the Terrans knew about their real goal here. "You are right, we have accused you of being accountable for the Wraith waking up with the sole purpose of gaining much needed technologies from you and I'm sorry for that, but the threat the Genii pose to us is still very much real."

"We are aware of the deal the Genii were able to make with another alien race, and I can sympathize with you, but that doesn't give you the right to accuse us in order to extort something from us, especially since all your worlds are currently protected by satellites _we_ have placed there and while we are doing whatever we can to protect you from any possible attack. I'm sorry but this is definitely not the way you'll get something from us."

"I apologize, but we are afraid what the Genii will do."

"Why are you so afraid?"

"I don't know if you are aware, but the Genii once were a great… _confederation,_ with many races in it." Shiana said.

"What do you exactly mean by confederation?" Weir asked since she noticed the way Shiana said that particular word.

Shiana sighed, first looking at the other people in the room to see if they agreed. They nodded and she began explaining, "A long time ago we were all part of the Genii confederation, but we didn't join freely, not entirely at least. The Genii forced us under threat of repercussions and once we joined, we also understood that the confederation was never an alliance of equals. And now that they are gaining advancements we are afraid the same will happen again."

"Wait, wait, are you saying that in the past the Genii forced you to join this so called confederation?"

"In essence, yes. At first, they would always ask nicely if some race wanted to join, but when someone refused, accidents would start happening. Travelers through the stargate would mysteriously disappear and other worlds would simply stop trading with them, all until they would reconsider joining the Genii Confederation. And as I said, such confederation wasn't of equals."

Weir finally understood their fear. The Genii were the bullies of the Pegasus galaxy regardless of the Wraith. Now there was only the problem of how to help them. "Did you ever think of creating a coalition of planets? Let's say a confederation of your own."

"And what good would it do us?" Kelore stepped in the conversation. "Even as a coalition we are not strong enough to oppose the Genii, not with the advancements they have gained recently."

"That is probably true, but what if such coalition makes an alliance with somebody who can oppose the Genii."

"Are you offering an alliance?"

"Well, I'm not saying that an alliance with us is impossible, but for now our leaders have decided that it is best if we remain neutral in this galaxy, and such alliance between us would most certainly create unwanted tensions. Maybe one day we can make an alliance, but not now. Also, I believe an alliance should be made between two parties that can both benefit from it and if we make an alliance with you this wouldn't be the case. With time, you would probably start thinking that we are ruling over you more than being equals and that is something we don't want to see happening. We are also bound by being already allied with other races in our own galaxy with many rules that you possibly wouldn't like."

"I don't understand. What alliance did you then have in mind?"

"I was thinking of an alliance with another human race in this galaxy that has the capabilities to oppose the Genii."

Shiana thought about what Weir just said and it took her some time to understand who she meant. "The Travelers. You are thinking we should make an alliance with the Travelers?"

"I do. Think about it. The Travelers are the only other human race in this galaxy that is space capable and we know they don't have any intentions of settling down on some planet. They simply prefer living in space, but that doesn't mean they don't need to get on a planet's surface from time to time. If you create a collation that would allow safe harbor for the Travelers on your worlds or even to build some infrastructure so they can have warehouses, farming or even a place where they can repair their ships while also having a bed where to sleep in while on the ground, I believe the Travelers would be very interested in making such an alliance. In return, I believe that such alliance with the next most powerful human race in this galaxy would be more than enough to keep the Genii at bay."

"This is an interesting proposition, but we have no way of contacting the Travelers."

"But we do. If you want, we can also take the role of mediators in your talks; if you want us of course."

Shiana looked at Kalore and Dimas who looked very interested at the proposition. "We are open to this idea. We would like to start talks with the Travelers as soon as possible."

"This could be the solution to save us from the Genii," the Manarian representative said.

"Why do you think that after what we have learned here today, you'll even be in our coalition Smedeon?" Dimas snapped back at him.

Smedeon saw that all three other representatives were looking at him with disdain. "I was the one who proposed this meeting and now you want to kick me out?"

"We are painfully aware of that. The only thing I could say is that we've been fools to even consider your offer."

Apparently being responsible for almost having caused the destruction of the Ancestral city was something very close to sacrilege to these people and Smedeon had been quickly ostracized by the other three races in the room.

'_Ah well, apparently even bad deeds sometimes don't go unpunished,'_ Weir thought. "Well, if you don't have anything else to add, I think I can return back to Atlantis in order to contact the Travelers."

"Of course, of course," Shiana said, all three representatives rising in salute.

Weir smiled, getting up herself and looking at Woolsey, "Mr. Woolsey, if you can please escort me back to my shuttle I would appreciate it." Weir said, apparently wanting to talk to him in private.

He nodded and the two of them left the room. The others would probably remain in the conference room for quite some time, mostly discussing what to do with the Manarians, but Weir had more than enough talk for one day to listen to that conversation too.

Exiting the conference room on their way to the turbo-lift, Woolsey spoke for the first time since they had entered the conference room. "You did a good job in there. The whole time I didn't want to say anything from fear I would screw up something. How did you come up with the whole Travelers thing?"

"Recently we had many contacts with the Travelers. As you know, we are helping them repair their ships and even build them a few new ones when we have a shipyard available. The Travelers are in a much better position because of it, but they are still dependent on us for any major repair to their ships and that cannot go on forever. They must become self-sufficient and that means they will sooner or later need to settle on some planet and build some infrastructure, something they are categorically refusing to do. It appears that living in space for thousands of years has changed them so much that they are now reluctant to stay on a planet for more than a few days at a time. If they could come up with an agreement with some other human races that can give them a place to stay and where they can build something that would allow them to repair their ships when needed, they would solve a lot of their problems. So with this deal I'm not only helping those still inside the conference room, but I'm most of all helping the Travelers."

"Good thinking, but there is still one problem though," Woolsey said.

"Which is?"

"The Genii. How do you think the Genii will react to that once they find out?"

"That's the reason why I wanted to talk to you in private. I think, for now, the best thing is if the Genii don't know about this, not until the deal is almost through. For this reason you'll have to go back in that room and convince the other three races to accept the Manarians in their coalition."

"Why?"

"Because if they don't, I have the feeling that _that_ weasel Smedeon will go straight to the Genii."

"Alright, that makes sense, but are you sure you want the Manarians in their coalition?"

"Of course not. That weasel should not get anything from this, but for now the most important thing is to keep him on the negotiation's table. You must discreetly let the other three people in the room know that if they want to kick Smedeon out of their coalition they can do it once the deal with the Travelers is a done deal."

Woolsey smiled wickedly, "Dr. Weir, I didn't know you are capable of such despicable tactics. Weren't you the one who said that you always liked making sure that in negotiations everyone gets what he wants?"

"Well, let's just say I changed from wanting for everyone to get what they want to wanting for everyone to get what they deserve."

"Alright, I think I'll be able to convince them to keep Smedeon on board for a while longer."

With that, the two of them departed in separate directions, with Woolsey going back to the conference room.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Unknown system  
**_stardate: 2522.62_

The probe entered the designated star system, the one the Terrans had instructed the probe to reach and scan for any trace of a Wraith presence. Slowly reverting to sublight speed at the edge of the system, the probe began its scanning. Its first task was to find any planet with an atmosphere capable of sustaining life. These planets would then be flagged as priorities and checked first, and only if they didn't show any Wraith presence, other uninhabitable planets would be checked next going to such length as to check even gaseous giants if necessary.

Finding two planets capable of barely sustaining life, the probe chose the closest one to check first. The planet was smaller than the usual earthlike planet, with a much lower gravity and an atmosphere so thin that no human could survive on the planet's surface for longer periods of time. But the Wraith were not humans.

Reaching the planet's orbit, the probe began its slow scanning on the surface below. Circling around the planet, the probe did not find any radiological emissions coming from the surface indicative of the presence of any kind of power source. Having finished the scans, the probe compiled the report that would be sent back through the network to the Guardians and the Terrans for further analysis.

Although the probe did not find any certain emissions that would unequivocally determine the presence of the Wraith, the probe did flag the report as having a moderate possibility of something being on the planet surface. The reason why the probe had done so was not because of what it had found, but because of what it hadn't. In a small area on the planet surface, the probe had detected an anomaly in the usual EM spectrum all planets were emitting or reflecting. There was always radiation from the planet's surface, and lack of such radiation was as much indication of something being down there as it would be if having found too much of it. The probe had categorized this as a possible dampening field in order to conceal whatever was down there. Finding out what exactly the probe had found would be the job of the Terrans or the Guardians, and not the probe's job. Moving away from the planet, the probe continued with her investigation of the other planets in the system.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**


	16. Deliverance

**Author's note: **Here's the next chapter, probably the last one this year. Don't think I'll have the time to post another one next week. So happy festivities to everyone, and the posting will continue first week of 2013.

**Stormwolf3710: **I thought about the introduction of yet a new race who's behind the grey aliens, but there are already so many and some reader have pointed out that it is already difficult enough to follow that I didn't want to introduce more. And than I would still have to introduce the Vanir too. The traveler alliance will give other human races in Pegasus some much needed security.

**Trekki859: **Well, I thought that it was about bloody time that Weir gets fed up with all the crap he receives from other races. She should have her limits too, and not always try to please others. In my mind a commanding officer should always be worried when he sends his people in a possibly dangerous situation. The exoskeletons don't have shields, not in my story at least. Sending people to board a ship they have no clue what's on it can be very dangerous. It can turn out to be nothing, but it can also turn out that the Aschen have put incredible defenses. Even with great protection, if they show up on the ship, and there are plasma turrets coming down from the ceiling, they could get shredded. So, Jack is worried what they'll have to face.

I didn't know it was your post, but as I replied in that one, technologies like those you have mentioned will be introduced. Only patience is required. There's still a long road ahead of us before the end of this trilogy, and I need to spread discoveries throughout the entire story. Also, there won't be identical ones; I always try to be as original as possible, and not copy other's work, even when it is from a game. More tech coming soon ;)

**josiah275: **oh, come on! There aren't that many :) The Lucian Jaffa war is over and the grey aliens have been introduces chapters ago. with the only new information that they are controlled by the Vanir and that can hardly be construed as introduction of a new and unknown enemy. That said, there won't be more unknown races introduced, I promise.

**romanhellhound: **me too.

**Nagato: **thanks

**EvilTheLast: **Everything is possible, but for now the Genii are only starting. They still don't have spaceships and it will take time. Well, the grey aliens are too foot soldiers of the Vanir, and the Vanir want to survive by any means necessary so...

**Senrab Nomis: **The Vanir are not at the level of SGA, but desperation is driving them so they will have to try something.

Well, if somebody gives you an entire planet, I think many races would decide to give them a space capable ship, maybe one a generation or two old, why not. As Weir had explained in the show when she was a replicator, there are many races in the galaxy, they were just hiding because of the Wraith, and the space station opened the human races to other races in the galaxy.

**StargateFFWriter:** If you want, you can use my name for that race, I don't mind.

**chain. reader: **thanks, well, my ideas come from an very fervid imagination.

******apocalyps24 : **well, I'm not sure what the conclusion of our little chat was, but as I said, there won't be more mention about speed of light or things like that, so...

**thank to my beta, and hope you all will like this new chapter too.**

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy - Ursa Major Cloud  
**_stardate:2538.24_

The Terran fleet, the one that had been sent to deal with the Leptinian threat, comprised of many AF-307 Ares class assault frigates, two AC-309 Athena class assault carriers, the one and only SC-310 Colossus class super carrier and the lonely Daedalus, immediately upon arrival in the Tik'al's galaxy had begun planning their first joint mission that involved destroying several shipyards on one of the many Leptinian controlled planets. Since their mission wasn't to engage the enemy, but to simply destroy the shipyards, a plan had been devised that didn't involve a frontal assault at the enemy. For such mission, only one ship, from all those the Terrans had brought, was the right choice. The only problem was that Caldwell didn't particularly like which ship that was.

"Sir, we have exited hyperspace on the outer edge of the system," one crewman informed Caldwell.

"Cloak the ship and push as slowly towards the planet," Caldwell ordered.

The ship began its slow and inconspicuous approach toward the Leptinian planet where their shipyards were located. From the information Caldwell had received, the planet had four shipyards spread less than twenty miles apart. His mission was simple. He needed to reach the planet and blast all four shipyards on the surface.

While making their slow approach, Caldwell watched what was awaiting them in orbit around the planet. There wasn't just a cloud of swarming craft that would be more than enough to destroy his ship, but there were also several orbital batteries that looked very intimidating too. At this moment, he understood why the Tik'al had been postponing their attack on this particular planet, even after having acquired all the necessary intel more than three months ago. The defenses guarding it could easily destroy a fleet of Tik'al ships even before they could complete their mission. Thankfully, the Terrans had cloaking technology that would allow them to reach the planet undetected. Caldwell also hoped he would have the possibility to _leave_ the planet after they had dropped their payload too, the same way as they came; very much undetected.

"Colonel, the sensors are detecting the same jamming signal as when the Leptinians had surrounded our ship. I don't believe we can open a hyperspace window here in order to escape," a crewman said.

Caldwell sighed inwardly. He knew there would be surprises on this mission, "How long until we reach the planet?"

"Five more minutes sir."

"Alright, prepare the Horizon."

The weapons officer nodded, immediately starting to work on the deployment of the weapon system. So far, the Horizon had never been used, but the Terrans were confident it would work. After all, the weapon wasn't anything too complicated or difficult to make. The Horizon was nothing more than six Naquadah enhanced warheads placed inside a delivery system that would, on a certain altitude, break apart and spread its payload on the planet's surface below. "The weapon is ready sir."

"Helm, take us directly above our target."

The pilot complied and, in less than three minutes, the ship stopped just above the Leptinian shipyards.

"Launch the Horizon," Caldwell ordered.

The Horizon was released from the underbelly of the Terran ship, slowly gaining momentum downward towards the planet's surface. As it continued its descent, the sensors officer noticed some movement. "Sir, the Leptinians must have noticed the launch. Their weapons platforms are turning in our direction, and I'm also picking up hundreds of enemy craft changing course."

"Switch to shields and leave orbit immediately."

The Daedalus lost its invisibility just a few seconds before the first energy lance from one of the nearby orbiting platforms fired, missing widely. They must have targeted the general area where they thought the ship was while still cloaked. Now that it wasn't cloaked anymore though, they would be able to adjust their aim and they were not going to miss next time.

While the Daedalus was leaving the planet's orbit, three bright flashes were detected coming from the planet's surface. The defenses must have intercepted three of the six warheads during their approach. It didn't matter though. The three Mark IXs had been more than enough to obliterate the entire area where the four shipyards once were.

Having accomplished their mission, now it was only a matter of fleeing the system in one piece. As the Daedalus gained momentum, pushing farther and farther away from the planet, several lances from the orbital batteries hit the ship's shields, making it glow brightly.

Inside, Caldwell didn't look very pleased. The Leptinians did not only have large numbers of fighters, but they were also able to build very powerful anti-capital ship weapons. As the ship was making its way away from the planet, the number of hits from the batteries began diminishing at a constant rate until finally no weapon could reach them anymore. Now, Caldwell wanted nothing more than to get rid of the hundreds of smaller craft that were once again swarming his ship.

"Shield status!"

"Shields holding at 48 percent. We lost most of it due to the orbital batteries sir. The smaller craft are not capable of draining our shields, but they are preventing us from entering hyperspace."

"Are there more enemies coming our way?"

"Yes sir. I'm detecting more than five thousand more craft converging on our location. It will take them some time to reach us though. Five minutes for the first wave and almost ten for the second."

Once alerted all craft in the system began converging towards them and without the ability to enter hyperspace or lose them, Caldwell knew he had only one other choice at his disposal. "Send the signal Lieutenant."

Only two minutes after the Lieutenant had sent the message, a dozen hyperspace windows opened, with four Tik'al warships, one AC-309 assault carrier and six assault frigates exiting and reverting to normal space. The four larger Ti'kal warships and the Terran assault carrier turned to face the approaching Daedalus and the swarm of Leptinian craft with their broadside, where they had most of their turrets prepared for a warm welcome. The Terran nimble assault frigates began their approach in order to provide relief for the Daedalus, still unable to enter hyperspace because of its escort.

Soon, the six frigates reached weapons range, launching several Mark VII nukes in the general direction of the Daedalus. The nukes went their way, not on a straight course for the Terran ship, but rather on all sides of it. It was thought that the Mark VII with their five megaton payload, even in case the detonations were to graze the Daedalus shields, would not be as strong as to overload the ship's shields, especially not at half a mile distance from the ship. They also thought the same could not be said for the smaller craft circling around the Daedalus.

Timed perfectly, the missiles exploded all around the fleeing Terran ship, destroying more than half of the Leptinian forces swarming around it. Closing even further, the frigates opened fire from the many plasma repeaters and railguns they had at their disposal. The frigates didn't have the same number of plasma beams as the Daedalus, but each frigate had even more of the smaller guns than the larger Terran ships in the fleet. The frigates were simply much better at fighting smaller vessels than the Daedalus was.

Chewing up more and more of the enemy forces, little remained once the Daedalus had finally reached the other larger ships. The rest of the Leptinian craft that had somehow survived the nukes and the onslaught delivered by the frigates, were quickly dispatched by the massive Tik'al warships.

After a short conversation, the captains of the various ships decided not to wait for the wave of five thousand plus Leptinian craft that were quickly approaching their position. They were confident they could even take them, if it was necessary, but that wasn't the mission and now that all ships were free to open a hyperspace window, there was no reason to stay anymore.

One after the other, all allied ships entered hyperspace on their way back home. There were more planets they still needed to visit before they could say they had achieved something.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Quiril  
**_stardate: 2549.39_

It had been three weeks since the Terrans had sent spies on Quiril. In that time, the two dozen well trained Terrans had spent learning whatever they could on the location of the Ori ground cannons and the defenses those installations had, all before the sabotage mission could begin.

Even with the tech at their disposal, with the agents being able to cloak whenever needed, living in Ori controlled territory hadn't been easy. In addition to the followers constantly patrolling the capital city, the biggest challenge were of course the priors. The priors with their telepathic abilities could easily sense the agents as not being humans native of this world and if even one was suspected, their entire mission would inevitably fail. Not having any other option, the Terran spies had to mingle with the local populous, evading the priors on every step and in any way they possibly could.

Except for the obvious task of gathering important information that would help them complete their mission, and because they knew they could not possibly succeed in this endeavor alone, they also needed to enlist the help from the local resistance. It was dangerous, but if they were to succeed they had to make contact with them. The first week, mostly having been spent watching and learning, one of the Terran spies had managed to find a group of Quirilians who would regularly gather in a local bar. From monitoring low frequency radio broadcasts they knew the resistance was using, the spy knew the group was one of the many cells in the Quirilian occupied territory that was fighting the Ori from the moment they had set foot on their planet. He also understood that working in cells was the only way to ensure that even if captured the whole resistance would not fall, something they had quickly learned the first few times one of their members had been caught and interrogated by a prior. Since he was unable to hide the knowledge he possessed from the prior, quickly, a large group of Quirilians had been caught and killed in an attempt to instantly quash the resistance.

After making first contact that had almost resulted in him being killed, mostly because of the paranoid behavior of the resistance members that immediately believed he was an infiltrator working for the Ori, things slowly started to move along in the right direction. He'd quickly learned the modus operandi of the resistance and the approximate number of various cells. Of course, it took a lot of convincing before the small group started believing he wasn't here to destroy them and it took even longer to allow the other Terran spies to join other cells around the country.

In the next two weeks, the Terran spy had reluctantly agreed to help the cell fight the Ori in whatever way he could. He knew that helping the rebels could result in him being caught, which would further mean the failure of their entire operation, but he had to show these people that he was trustworthy.

With trust having finally been established, the talks on how to take the Ori ground cannons had begun. Again, the resistance members were skeptical with the whole idea of simultaneously taking out the twenty plus cannons in order for the Terrans to bring their ships above their heads. The only reason they in the end agreed to help was when they understood that what the resistance alone could accomplish would never be enough to win the war. Only if the Terrans were able to bring their firepower to bear on the Ori, only then Quiril could be freed from their presence.

"I'm telling you, if you can keep the Ori followers busy for at least ten minutes, it will be enough for me to sabotage the cannon," Ronald Greer said impatiently to the group. The time for the planned attack was quickly approaching and the Quirilians were still having doubts.

"The Ori cannons are inside a facility with only one door to get in. From what we have learned, no one can enter through that door if someone from inside doesn't open it first or if he's not a prior. And placing explosives on the outside of the building, no matter how powerful your explosives are, won't be enough to destroy those thick walls," one in the group replied not understanding what good a distraction could do to help him accomplish his mission.

Greer knew full well that placing an explosive on the outside would do nothing. The building was too strong to be destroyed or even breached that way, but they didn't know he can walk through walls either. And they never would, since he wasn't about to divulge that particular information to anyone. "You don't have to worry about that. Suffice it to say, I have a way in, but I'm not ready to divulge the method on how at this point. If somebody gets caught, the prior can easily extract information from them and I can't risk divulging vital information that could fall into the wrong hands. My only problem is that I need time to get inside and for that I need the guards distracted."

The same Quirilian didn't like being kept in the dark, but he understood the reason why too well, "I understand and, if you say you can get in, I believe you."

"Good. So, can you provide distraction for ten minutes or not?" Greer asked impatiently. The mission had been scheduled for tomorrow morning and the other cells had already sent word that they were ready.

The same man looked at the other Quirilians in the room, all nodding in agreement, "We are prepared to die if necessary. We will provide you with the distraction for as long as it takes."

"Good. I need to contact my people now and let them know we are ready to start at 0400 hours tomorrow morning."

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Quiril's Orbit  
**_stardate: 2553.54_

Aboard the DN-306 Hercules, Jack had just finished speaking with Greer who had informed him the plan was on. Jack didn't like the fact that they were cutting it very close to the deadline, but apparently Greer had to do a lot of convincing before the last of the twenty plus cells agreed to provide a distraction for the separate agents to enter inside the large facilities holding the cannons. Turning around to talk to General Laundry, the commander of the Hercules and the one in charge of the Milky Way Fleet, he was interrupted by Hercules, the ship's avatar.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but Liam's ship has just exited hyperspace. He's requesting to beam aboard," Hercules said.

"Permission granted," Laundry said, turning to look at a dumbfounded Jack who was still looking at the avatar. "I know, I know. I can assure you, it wasn't my idea."

Jack was still looking at the ship's avatar with wide eyes. He simply couldn't believe it. "Tell me whose idea was to place the actor playing the Hercules TV show as the ship's avatar and I'm going to fire him immediately. Maybe even bring criminal charges."

Landry smiled, "The engineers who installed the AI told the avatar to choose how to look since they didn't know what to use."

"Can you explain why you have chosen that look?" Jack asked the avatar.

"From my research, this appearance will allow the crew to immediately know who I am since many know who this person is and what role he played on television."

Jack was about to reply to that, but the beaming sound of Liam teleporting next to him, stopped him, "Liam."

"Jack," Liam replied. "Is everything ready?"

"Yes. I just got word that every team is ready to take out the ground cannons," Jack said, pausing before continuing. "Are you really sure you want to go down there?"

"I am. I'm the best choice for taking the jamming device since there will be many priors at Ori central and as far as I know, I'm the only one who can hide his own thoughts from the priors," Liam replied simply.

It was true that the central building in the Capital city had become the main Ori stronghold on the planet and that there would be many priors there, but Jack still didn't like the idea of Liam going straight into the hornet's nest, and much less going in there alone. There was definitely no easy way of getting out if something went the wrong way, especially if he couldn't get the jamming device offline. There was also the fact that Jack didn't know of anyone else who can succeed in getting in without being noticed by the priors, so there was that to take into account too. "Alright then, if you're sure, we are scheduled to begin our mission at 0400 hours."

"Good. I'll be ready," Liam said, the next moment beaming back to his ship.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aschen Confederation  
**_stardate:2554.11_

While the Terrans were planning the liberation of Quiril, Teal'c was spending his time giving the Aschen a blow they wouldn't forget. While he was about to take care of one of the three known planets in the Aschen Confederation, two other battle groups were doing the same to the other two planets respectively. They had timed this to happen at the same time so that the Aschen would have the least warning possible.

Exiting hyperspace, the six Ha'taks found that except for the usual celestial bodies in the system there was only one other object floating in space. There, in orbit around the fourth planet, a lonely Aschen cruiser was floating undisturbed.

"Change course to intercept the Aschen vessel. Full speed," Teal'c ordered.

The Jaffa manning the Pel'tak inputted the course correction, as well as notifying the other five Ha'taks to do the same. Together, the six Jaffa warships sped at max thrust towards the affronting vessel. There was no innuendo here about what Teal'c had in mind. Teal'c was here to smash any ship that would try to prevent them from accomplishing their mission.

As the ships were approaching the alien vessel that by now had turned to face them, the comm. officer replied. "The Aschen vessel is hailing us."

"Open a channel," Teal'c replied.

Seconds later, the frontal view switched, displaying the face of a human, "Jaffa, this system is under the control of the Aschen Confederation. If you do not leave immediately, we will be forced to take actions against you."

"Aschen vessel, you are facing six warships and you stand no chance of winning. Surrender now and I will spare your and your crew's lives," Teal'c replied.

"We, the Aschen possess many more ships at our disposal, many already on their way here. Desist from your attack or this act will result in a war against a superior enemy that you cannot win."

"You are the one who started the war, from the very moment you decided to poison several of our worlds with your symbiote poison. I will say it once again. Surrender now or be destroyed; your choice."

As the conversation was abruptly severed from the Aschen end, the sensors officer started receiving new telemetry, "Master Teal'c, the Aschen vessel is powering weapons."

"So be it. Target the vessel and fire," Teal'c ordered without any trace of remorse.

Reaching weapons range, the Aschen cruiser was the first to let loose of its energy weapons, hitting several of the approaching Ha'taks at once with some green energy beams. Teal'c's ship shook from the impact, but the shields held strong. The six Ha'taks responded in kind, with all six warships firing from their many plasma cannons. Dozens of impacts in quick succession made the Aschen shields glow brightly. While continuing to fire, the six Jaffa warships easily managed to surround the lonely Aschen ship.

Another hit shook the lead Jaffa warship. "Shield status."

"Shields holding at 68 percent. The Aschen ship is focusing its attack on us Master Teal'c."

"Keep firing," Teal'c said, definitely not wanting to lessen their attack.

It didn't take long before Teal'c witnessed the first of many plasma bolts go straight through the Aschen vessel's shields, smashing into its hull. An explosion erupted on the starboard side of the enemy ship, followed shortly by another one on the aft side. Other explosions quickly followed once the vessel's shields completely failed and more bolts of plasma began raining on the hull without impediment. A massive explosion in space signaled the end of the fight and the unceremonious demise of the Aschen warship.

"Enemy vessel has been destroyed, Master Teal'c."

"Good. Proceed immediately as planned. If the Aschen told the truth, we can expect more ships coming soon."

As ordered the six Ha'taks sped toward the planet's orbit, all directed on separate locations around the planet. Without further ado, the ships began their relentless bombardment of the planet's surface in order to destroy the many crop fields or any other infrastructure the Aschen were using. On the planet's surface, near the gate, an Aschen Harvester was on its way to unload grain through an already open wormhole, when plasma bolts started raining from above. The small ship resisted for the first few bolts with its weak shields before succumbing to the relentless bombardment. It broke apart, exploding in countless pieces. The next instant the gate vanished in a bright flash of light. The Terrans had for this particular mission gifted the Jaffa with beaming technology to facilitate the retrieval of the stargate.

It took half an hour more of constant bombardment, but in the end the Jaffa had completed their mission.

"Ninety percent of the crops on the planet have been destroyed Master Teal'c and the gate is in our cargo hold. I have also received word from the other two battle groups we have sent to the other two planets. They have completed their missions without opposition."

"Good. Tell the rest of the fleet we are leaving immediately," Teal'c ordered, knowing full well that the Aschen would soon show up, and there was no reason to stay and face them now that they had completed their mission.

The six Ha'taks quickly converged in one point in space, before opening the same number of hyperspace windows and leaving the Aschen system. The Aschen would finally learn that there are consequences for their actions.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Quiril  
**_stardate:2554.81_

Greer was waiting cloaked only a hundred meters from a large building, the one housing the Ori cannon. He was waiting for the resistance to make a fuss, so that the many guards in front of the entrance of the large facility would finally leave. Finally hearing fire coming from the other side of the cannon, Greer saw several of the guards in front of the door leave, with only two of them remaining at their post. It was time to act.

Quickly moving under the protection of his personal cloak, he neared the entrance door, immediately shooting the two guards with his zatgun. Not wanting to take any chance, as he approached the two guards lying on the ground, he shot them two more times each, making them both disappear. Quickly switching off his cloak, he tapped another button on his wristband, activating the incorporated phase-shifting device. With his hand now raised in front of him, he passed through the metallic door, disappearing from sight.

On the other side, Greer quickly turned his cloak back on after having deactivated the wristband's shifting ability. Quickly proceeding to the end of the short corridor, leading deeper inside the facility, he peeked inside the next room. Inside, he saw there were two more guards on the far side. He didn't care for them. His only concern now was if there was a prior inside. So far he could not see any.

Scrutinizing the room for a little longer, he came to the conclusion that, as expected, this first level of the facility was holding the power generator to feed the power hungry cannon. Here he would not place any explosives since this would, with a high degree of certainty, make the generator explode and his job wasn't to create a crater of several miles in diameter. He needed to reach the cannon's large emitter and the control room on the upper levels and place explosives there that would disable the cannon for the time being.

Moving silently, Greer went to the staircase on the left side of the room that led to the upper levels. Being careful not to make any sound, he managed to reach the second floor where he could see inside the control room through an open door. Approaching the room slowly, he noticed there was a prior inside. Without waiting for the prior to sense him, he quickly activated the ultrasonic anti-prior device by tapping another button on the wristband. He knew the prior would sense the loss of his powers immediately, but it was still better than the alternative.

Stepping inside the room, Greer aimed at the prior who looked very much thoughtful as if he had sensed something was wrong, but not exactly understanding what. He fired his zatgun, with the prior dropping to the floor and losing consciousness. Greer immediately went near him with the intention of shooting him two more times in order to make him disappear. Intentions are great, but the fact that inside there were two more guards on the other side of the room that he hadn't noticed until now, made things a little trickier. Although cloaked, the two guards started shooting in his general direction, apparently having understood someone must be in the room even though they could not see anyone. He dived for cover behind a console near the unconscious prior in order to evade the many blasts that were coming his way. This wasn't good, he knew that. By now, every guard in the entire facility would have been able to hear the shots and he knew soon he would have to deal with more enemies.

Knowing that he needed to take care of the two guards as quickly as possible before more soldiers came, he leaned on the left side of the console and almost blindly shot several shots at the guards before quickly getting back behind the console. From the sound of it, he must have succeeded in hitting one of them. Greer, this time, decided to lean on the other side of the console, taking his time to see where the other man in the room was hiding. He saw the man was behind another console, crouching down in order to not get hit. As the guard had also stopped firing, he quickly left the safety of his cover and silently approached his target. Reaching the other console and stepping on its side, he saw the man was hunkered down on the floor, trembling like a leaf. The moment he had a clear line, Greer shot the man with his zat gun. He then moved to each man on the floor, shooting them two more times to make them disintegrate. He then went back and did the same to the prior. He could not risk any of them waking up while he was placing explosives. And letting them be killed by the explosion was probably an even worse fate in any case.

As he was about to start placing the explosives, his earpiece beeped. He had preset the wristband to inform him when its energy reserves would fall below twenty percent. Cursing, he deactivated the cloaking and anti-prior feature of the wristband. Apparently, using so many things drains a lot of power and he needed the remaining energy to phase-shift out of the facility when he had completed the mission.

Greer moved to several consoles, placing a brick of C4 and setting the timer to ten minutes on each one as quickly as possible. Having finished placing the explosives, he began moving to exit the room the same way he came, but stopped when he heard steps coming his way. From the sound of it he knew the two guards from the lower floor were coming up. If he knew he would have made so much noise on the second floor, he would have killed those two first while he was still down on the first floor.

Not having his cloak anymore and since he was more than certain that by now every guard inside the facility knew someone unwanted was here, Greer took out a Goa'uld grenade. Timing it perfectly with the steps he was hearing coming from the stairs, he tossed the live grenade before quickly hiding back inside the control room. A bright flash of light and the sound of people tumbling back down the stairs, told Greer the grenade had done its job. Still, Greer approached the staircase with caution, not to rush anything and get killed because of it. Leaning, he saw the two guards had tumbled the whole way down to the first floor.

Moving up on the next and last floor of the facility that was actually several levels higher because of the room inside being the talest one in order to hold the weapon's emitter, he quickly noticed there were three more followers inside. He deduced that, probably, since this level was a lot higher than the others, these three did not hear the firefight on the lower level, especially since they looked relaxed as if nothing was happening in the facility. They also looked more like tech guys than soldiers guarding the facility. Not seeing any weapon on them and without thinking twice, he stepped inside the room, quickly shooting all three of them. Again, looking around to see if he was really alone in order to not make the same mistake as on the second floor, he was glad to notice that he indeed was alone. Apparently, the Ori were so sure that no one could ever find a way to enter their facilities, that they had actually placed very few guards in them. He moved to the center of the room where a massive mechanical arm was holding the even bigger weapon's dish above. Placing three bricks of explosives on the arm, he synchronized them to explode at the same time as the other explosives he had already placed. He didn't have much time left; just barely enough to leave the facility before the explosions.

Without waiting any longer, he began his quick descent to the ground floor, reaching the entrance door in record time. He engaged the phase shifting device and passed through the door the same way as he did when he came. Once outside, he engaged his cloak for as long as the remaining energy reserves would allow it to work before he started running as fast and as far away from the cannon as possible. Reaching a relatively safe distance almost the same moment as his cloak disengaged, he tapped a few more buttons on his wristband that would send a signal notifying others that he had completed his mission.

In orbit above the planet, Jack was impatiently pacing up and down the bridge, overwhelmed with worry. He was probably making Landry go stir crazy with his pacing, but he couldn't help it. The timer on board the ship was ticking and in a minute or so, they would know if their plan to disable the ground cannons had worked or if his men had given their lives in vain.

"Jack, please stop pacing up and down. It's making me nervous," Landry said irritated.

"Sorry Hank, the waiting part is making me nuts!" Jack said after turning to face Landry. "I just can't help it. How much longer until we know something?"

Landry looked at Jack with a raised eyebrow. It was enough for Jack to understand how stupid his question had been, since they had a big timer displayed on the screen in front of them showing there was less than a minute to the predefined deadline, the time when, supposedly, all cannons should be disabled. Everything had been timed perfectly, but Jack knew things rarely went as planned.

As Jack looked at the timer reaching zero, he was very pissed at noticing no one was detecting anything happening on the ground. But, as was usually the case, he needed to just wait for a few seconds longer.

"Our sensors are detecting detonations inside the various facilities holding the ground cannons," the sensors officers said. Jack almost wanted to start jumping up and down in utter joy, but as he waited a little longer, the same officer continued. "The sensors have not detected explosions on three locations where the cannons are emplaced."

"Dammit!" Jack shouted. "Maybe they need more time?"

"Possible Jack, but if we wait for too long they could start repairing the other cannons if the damage is not too extensive. We need to make a decision and quickly," Landry said.

"I know Hank, I know. Do you think the Hercules can take three cannons?" Jack asked.

"There is only one way to find out Jack," Landry replied, knowing that, in the end, they need to begin with phase-two or everything would be lost.

"Alright, let's go then," Jack said.

"Helm, take us in weapons range. Power the shields directly through the ZPM and bring them to maximum power," Landry ordered. By directly powering the shields by the ZPM, they could significantly boost their strength even before the battle began.

"Are we going to shoot them with our main cannon?" Jack asked while the ship's crew was already working to bring them closer to the planet's orbit and into weapons range.

"We can't use the primary weapon because it uses antiprotons," the weapons officer said, as if this was enough to explain everything. Maybe it would be to someone else, but not for Jack.

"Why not?" Jack asked.

"Antiprotons would react immediately upon contact with the planet's atmosphere. Antimatter and matter would react far above the ground and the weapon would never be able to reach the cannons," The weapons officer explained. "The weapon was never meant to be used inside a planet's atmosphere."

"Then we use our heavy plasma beams. They should be more than enough to breach through whatever shielding those cannons have."

"They should, but our heavy plasma beams have hundreds of terawatt-hours of energy in them. They wouldn't just destroy the cannons, but they would also create a several miles large crater in all directions."

"Hank, I'm losing my patience here. What's the plan?" Jack asked, frustrated.

"We will use the new drones Jack. We believe if we maximize their penetration ability and minimize their end destructive power we can achieve a surgical strike," Landry explained.

The new drones were capable of tapping directly into the ship's power through the high frequency energy transfer band that Rodney McKay had developed, even after having been launched. It would give the new drones almost double the penetration power of the older model and by instructing the drones to further use all available power to penetrate the shield even though it meant the drones in the end would not have any energy left to detonate, would give the drones unprecedented penetration power, enough to pierce through even the Ori shields. Or at least, that was what they were hoping to achieve.

As the ship was approaching weapons range, the three still operational cannons fired even before the ship could reach optimal firing distance. The ship shook with each impact, but so far the shield was holding.

"Shield status!" Landry asked.

"Shield holding at 129 percent," one of the officers replied. The ZPM had overcharged the shield to 150 percent of its nominal strength.

"Fire the drones the moment we are in weapons range," Landry ordered.

The ship continued its approach for the next twenty seconds, in which time the ship received several more hits from the three cannons on the ground, making its shield's strength drop even further. The cannons were not only stronger than the usual Ori cannon placed on their ships, but their fire rate was also far greater.

Finally reaching weapons range of their own, from the ship's underbelly, a stream of golden objects flew toward the planet's surface. As they entered the planet's atmosphere, the stream of drones split in three equal but smaller streams, each containing hundreds of drones. Five seconds later, the separate streams hit the dome shields that were protecting the ground cannons. Most of the drones exploded upon impact with the shield, but in the end, the last fifty or so drones managed to pass through. With the clear instruction of wreaking havoc inside the cannons, the drones went to work and without any mercy they burrowed their way inside the large metallic facilities holding the cannons. Making several trips in and out of the three facilities, the drones created so many holes, with the inside probably not looking any better, that it was a miracle all three buildings were still able to stand in one piece.

"The cannons have been destroyed sir," the weapons officer replied.

"Good, now we need to wait for Liam to disable the jamming field before we can start beaming people on the ground," Landry said.

"Sir, I'm detecting a sudden energy buildup coming from the building where the jamming device is located."

"What? As far as we know, they don't have any weapon in that building," Jack said, frustrated.

Before anyone else could say anything, Hercules appeared on the bridge, "I have compared the sensor readings of the energy buildup coming from the ground with similar occurrences I have stored in my databanks, and I have found one possible match."

"What is it Hercules?" Landry asked.

"The same energy buildup happened in the SGC years ago when Anubis tried to overload the stargate."

This little information the people on the bridge didn't like at all. A gate exploding would create an explosion in excess of over 3000 Megatons, enough to destroy a good portion of the continent and to make the living conditions on the planet for the next thousand years far from being perfect. Apparently, the Ori were going with the old all or nothing on this planet.

"If that thing blows…" Jack started saying.

"I know Jack, we need to stop this. We can target the same building the same way as we did with the cannons."

"The probability of success by using the drones is minimal since I'm detecting a massive shield in place, many times more powerful than the one protecting the ground cannons," Hercules said.

"And there is also the problem that Liam is inside that building too," Jack said, being more than sure Liam would not like being shredded by drones.

"Maybe that is the solution to our problem. Maybe he can stop what the Ori are trying to do," Landry noted, seconds before giving the order. "Comm., contact Liam on the ground."

Far from the location where Greer had sabotaged one of the many Ori ground cannons, somewhere near the center of the Quirilian Capital city, Liam had just taken out the third prior he had met so far by snapping his neck. By combining the cloaking device and his ability to hide his approach from the prior had allowed him to activate the ultrasonic device that took away their powers just seconds before approaching him from behind. So far, he had managed to get inside the large facility undetected, but the sudden disappearance of three priors, as well as many more guards, would soon be noticed and he still wasn't anywhere near the jamming device.

As he was about to proceed further, his earpiece chirped, "_Liam, this is Jack._"

"Hello Jack. I'm kind of busy right now so…"

"_Yeah, I know, but you should know that someone inside the building you are in is trying to overload the stargate,_" Jack said.

Liam stopped in his tracks, thinking of the devastation an exploding gate would create. Maybe in the future they should start building stargates with a material that wasn't Naquadah, "How much time?"

"_Twelve minutes,_" Jack replied.

The time he had left was also not as much as he would want, "Okay Jack, I'll see what I can do," Liam said disconnecting and immediately establishing a link to William. "William, did you hear my last conversation with Jack?"

"_I have."_

"Good. Call our space station in Andromeda and tell them to immediately dial this planet and while keeping the signal to keep the gate open active, to shut down the power to the gate from their end."

"_And what good would that do?"_

"If the calling gate doesn't provide the necessary power, it will use the power from the other gate to keep the connection open," Liam said, already on his way to the gate. Apparently the jamming device would have to wait.

"_Alright, I'm already making the call, but are you sure this will be enough to stop the buildup in the gate?"_

"No, not by far, but it will buy me some more time to try and stop it," Liam explained.

"_Alright, but you still need to hurry. I don't know how much time this will give you."_

"I'm painfully aware of that fact," Liam said continuing his run.

It wasn't difficult to understand where the gate was. He just needed to follow the biggest concentration of energy his suit's sensors were showing him. He had to go back though, since he was on his way to the jamming device that was on the roof of the building while apparently the gate was in the basement. There was also no time for subtlety or stealth anymore. He needed to reach the gate as fast as possible.

Moving down the stairs and through various corridors, Liam stumbled on many guards he quickly dispatched with his telekinetic abilities, slamming the poor bastards into walls left and right and without even bothering to check if they were really dead or unconscious. Maybe if he took the elevator instead of the stairs he would be able to reach the basement of the large Quirilian building sooner, but he didn't trust he wouldn't get stuck in it. No matter, he had finally reached the sublevel where the gate was, and after a few more corridors in the endless maze, he reached a large metallic door from where the sensors were detecting the energy buildup. With a motion of his hand, the door began sliding to the right under his telekinetic powers. As the door opened completely, he immediately saw the gate already connected, probably from the Andromeda galaxy, and a single prior standing in the middle of the room. He mentally instructed his suit to activate the anti-prior device in order to be able to quickly take the prior out. As Liam proceeded inside the room toward the prior, he immediately noticed that the anti-prior device wasn't working as advertised, with the prior's stick glowing brightly being a definite giveaway of that fact. This prior must have spent some time near the device and he had become immune.

The prior pointed his glowing stick at Liam who was now only meters from him. Liam immediately felt the influence the prior was exerting on him, as if the weight of the world was crushing on him. Shrugging it off quickly as if it was nothing, he smiled to the prior. "Your tricks do not work on me prior. Let's see if mine work on you."

With a quick motion of his hand, the prior's staff flew in the air crashing on the far wall. The next moment, the by now panicky prior kneeled on the floor sensing the same weight of the world as Liam did. And yet, Liam could still sense defiance in the prior.

"You are the Alterran we have been warned about," the prior stated.

"I am prior, unfortunately for you," Liam replied.

Liam noticed the smile on the prior, something that told him something was wrong, "I'm glad you are here. With your destruction when the gate explodes and once I die and ascend, I will be welcomed with open arms by the Ori. Even you can't disable the power generator before the gate overloads."

While still keeping the prior pinned down, Liam concentrated on the gate, sensing the massive energy it was holding. The gate was reaching the point of overloading even with the connection to the Andromeda galaxy sapping large quantities of the inputted energy. And without knowing where the power unit feeding the gate was, the prior was right to say he didn't have the time to stop the gate from overloading. And yet, Liam turned back to face the prior, smiling wickedly. He sent a message with the help of his suit directly through the gate to the space station on the other end of the wormhole, informing them to shut down the gate.

"You know, I just wanted to make a long distance call and you just made that possible," Liam said, watching the uneasy expression on the prior's face. "Prior, once you get home, I want you to give a message to your masters. I want you to tell them that if they do not stop coming here and if they do not let us live our lives in peace, then I will be forced to come for them and when I'm done with them, there will be no Ori left."

"Gods do not fear evil. Your message will mean nothing to them," the prior replied with anger at how a mere mortal could even think of threatening gods.

"Oh, I assure you. This message _will_ get their attention," Liam said while approaching the prior.

Reaching the man kneeling on the floor, he placed his left hand on the prior's head. He needed coordinates if he wanted to dial the gate to the Ori galaxy. Searching through the prior's memories, he found a stargate in the Ori galaxy, a gate located on the prior's homeworld before he had been turned into a prior. He had visited his home planet many times since he became a prior, and now Liam knew the exact location of the planet in the Ori galaxy. He now had what he needed to dial.

Concentrating even further, a bright white light started emanating from his hand, quickly gaining in intensity until the entire room became blindingly bright. When the light subsided, the prior in front of him… wasn't a prior anymore. He was now the human that he was before the Ori turned him into a prior.

The prior in front of him felt real fear for the first time in his life. He felt the change, he felt his body turning back into the human he once was. How was it possible? How could someone undo something only the fires of Celestis could do?

"This… this is not possible," the prior whispered with a trembling voice.

With the gate disengaging and without replying to the prior, Liam moved to the DHD. Unfortunately, the DHD wasn't designed to dial the Ori galaxy. The galaxy was far away, not even near the local group of galaxies and the symbols on the DHD wouldn't do him any good. Placing his hand above the DHD, the symbols began cycling on and off at tremendous speed. He needed to reprogram the DHD, sort of like inputting the dialing coordinates in binary code.

Seconds later, Liam finished the reprogramming with eight randomly selected symbols remaining active. It didn't matter. The DHD had been reprogrammed to dial the same coordinates in space no matter which eight symbols were inputted. With the symbols active, the gate began cracking with electricity all around it, locking chevron after chevron without having turned even once.

The frightened ex prior on the floor watched as the event horizon formed without the usual splash. Before he could say anything, he felt an invisible force raising him from the ground, just before being tossed through the event horizon.

Seconds later the gate disconnected, fully depleted. The connection lasted just enough to send the prior through and it served the purpose of depleting the energy buildup perfectly. Liam was glad it had worked as he had predicted it would.

That was of course until the generator gave out completely due to the tremendous stress of dialing the Ori galaxy. It left Liam standing in a pitch black room, unable to see even an inch in front of him. "Great! No good deed goes unpunished."

Meanwhile, this sudden loss of power, with the shield, jamming device and the sudden energy buildup disappearing, didn't go unnoticed by the Hercules in orbit.

"Sir, the main Ori stronghold just went completely dark, and I'm not detecting any energy readings from where the gate is located," the sensor officer said, not fully understanding where the energy could have gone. He wasn't a scientist but even he knew that energy could not simply disappear.

"Good. Liam must have succeeded in stopping the gate from overloading. Hank, I think this is our cue," Jack said while looking at Landry.

"Helm, take us inside the planet's atmosphere above the capital," Landry ordered. "Inform the rest of the fleet to be ready if the Ori decide to show up with their ships."

With the orders having been given, the crew of the Hercules quickly went to work. It was finally the time to free the planet from the Ori presence on the ground. While creating a massive atmospheric disturbance, with clouds forming above the Quirilian capital, the Hercules descended into the planet's atmosphere, stopping only a few miles above the surface. By now, such sight must have made many Ori followers incredibly uneasy.

"We have reached stationary position two miles above the Quirilian capital sir," the helm said.

"Load all tubes with Mark II conventional missiles and target larger Ori installations on the ground. Use the PDLs to dispose of any identified Ori ground unit in range and use the railguns and repeaters to dispose of any Ori fighter in the air."

From the two kilometer long beast, dozens of tiny lasers started hitting the ground beneath wherever an Ori unit was detected. At the same time, missiles sped from the many launch tubes on the ship's hull, speeding toward various targets all around the continent. With a few sporadic Ori fighters, foolish enough to threaten the ship, even the railguns and plasma repeaters went to work the moment a target was acquired.

More than four hundred miles to the south, Anderson watched as missiles started raining at the Ori defense line only twenty miles to the north. The ships in orbit were adding their contribution by targeting the Ori main defense line. "Inform all pilots on the ground to be ready to take off," Anderson said.

"Yes sir," the man beside him replied, quickly beginning to work on the comm. unit in front of him.

Behind the defense line, there were rows of hammerhead drop-ships and raptors waiting the order to go into action. It didn't take long before the order came, the moment they got the news their fighters had scrambled from their spaceships in orbit. The various craft on the ground filled with troops, APCs and even tanks took off on their way to the capital in order to deploy their precious payload while under the protection of their fighters already entering the atmosphere.

With all craft having departed, it was time for Anderson and his armored units to as well begin their march toward the Ori defense line. It was an all-out offensive, one that the Ori would not forget so soon.

Deep in space, more than five light minutes from the planet, several hyperspace windows tore open, deploying five Ori warships. Inside one of the ships, the one in the center of the formation, Adria was looking through the glass-like window at the planet and the many enemy ships in orbit. It didn't take long for her to understand that the planet didn't have a new massive crater on it, clear consequence if the gate had exploded.

Their plan once again didn't work and she didn't know why it didn't. From the beginning they knew there was a chance the Terrans would find a way to defeat them and it was that realization that made Adria think how they needed a contingency plan, a plan that would in the end made the possible Terran victory turn bitter. As planned, Adria had instructed to turn the Quirilian building that was holding the gate into a stronghold with a powerful shield that could survive a massive bombardment. The shield would have resisted any attack from the Terrans until the gate overloaded and after that, there would be nothing left on the continent.

And now, the sensors were telling her that their stronghold didn't have a shield raised at all and that there was no detectable energy buildup in the stargate. Clearly their plan didn't succeed, but why it didn't, was a mystery to her. Watching the many ships in orbit, plus one two miles pitch black ship that looked very intimidating and that she had never seen before, Adria knew full well that an assault with only five of their ships would result in nothing more than their destruction without having accomplished anything, and she had enough losses for one day.

Adria sighed, making the two priors behind her twitch in fear. If she was pissed enough they would be the first to feel her ire. Instead, she simply ordered to turn the fleet around, thinking how for their next target they would need to come up with something better, some way to prevent the Terrans from taking back whatever planet they would target as their next victim.

Moving away from the bridge Adria went through several corridors before reaching the room with the stargate in it. Her ship was the only one in the entire fleet that had the power requirements necessary to dial her home galaxy and she needed to once again contact her brothers and sisters with more bad news.

As the event horizon formed, with the hologram of the Doci quickly materializing in front of her, she reluctantly began relaying the bad news, "Brothers and sisters, the plan has failed. The stargate didn't explode."

"_**We are aware,"**_ the distorted, and also sounding very pissed, voice of the Ori replied.

This little fact startled Adria a little. Actually, it startled her a lot since she didn't have a clue how they could possibly know something she had just learned, "You are?"

"_**The one we warned you about has sent us... a message,"**_ the voice replied.

"What kind of message, and how did he managed to send it to you?" Adria asked not sure on how he could have contacted them.

"_**He opened a wormhole to one planet in our galaxy and he sent a prior through,"**_ the voice explained, but there was also a trace of uneasiness in it.

Now Adria did finally understand. She understood exactly what had transpired on the planet's surface and how he'd managed to stop the gate from exploding. Clever, she thought. "What was the message?"

"_**He informed us that if we do not desist from our incursion into their galaxy… he would come for us next,"**_ the voice said reluctantly.

Adria was plastered to notice that the voice sounded as if her ascended brothers and sisters had taken the threat seriously, "Surely it was only an empty threat." The idea of him taking the fight to them without the help of the ascended Alterrans was ridiculous at best, completely insane most probably.

"_**We are not certain."**_

"What makes you believe that?"

"_**The prior was no prior anymore."**_

"What? How?" Adria babbled. No mortal could have such powers.

"_**We do not know."**_

"Surely he used some device to achieve such feat," Adria said, thinking that he could have had some device that can manipulate DNA, although, she didn't know of any device that could return someone's DNA to its previous state without having a sample of its original DNA, and surely not in the little amount of time he must have had to work with.

"_**No. The prior's memories are clear. He did not have any device."**_

Adria sighed again, thinking how something they had believed should have been very easy to achieve had turned into something completely different. There was also the fact that she couldn't understand why he would threaten them. "Why did he threaten you? We know the Alterrans have been trying to destroy us from the moment they spread the disease that had decimated our still not ascended brethren in our galaxy. What point is there in threatening us again?" Adria asked really not understanding his motivations. For the past five million years the Ori have taken every step possible to become stronger and stronger in order to dissuade the Alterrans from attacking them. It was the disease the reason why the Ori had begun spreading human life throughout their galaxy in order to sap their energy so they could become more powerful. Why would he now threaten them to stop the incursion in this galaxy if their destruction was always the plan?

"_**We do not understand his actions. It is as if he doesn't know of the Alterran previous actions."**_

Again, even this didn't make much sense to her. He was an Alterran and he'd been an ascended being for a very long time. There was no way he didn't know about the Alterrans spreading the disease in their galaxy, a disease that had killed so many, even if he wasn't born at the time. "I will proceed as planned. There is no going back."

"_**Agreed. This threat does not change anything. You must bring enough humans in their galaxy into our fold,"**_ the voice replied.

"What about Terra?" Adria asked.

"_**If you conquer enough worlds in their galaxy, we do not need the humans from Terra,"**_ the voice replied.

Adria smiled. She really disliked the Terrans and she wanted them gone. She needed to take care of that particular thorn in her side, but she wasn't allowed to take actions against them until she was certain she had found enough followers on other worlds. Pity the other planet with the largest human population in the galaxy could not serve their purpose. The Aschen would never believe in the Ori, or in any gods for that matter. For now, the Aschen were more helping her than anything else, with their interfering with the Terrans and the Jaffa, but still, sooner or later, she would have to deal with them as well.

No matter. She already had other plans in motion, plans that would deliver many planets under Ori control.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy  
**_stardate:2559.43_

Captain Scott had spent his last six hours flying his viper around a remote planet he didn't even know the name of. Lately, the Terrans had begun sending their ships all around the galaxy in order to deploy a single viper above a planet, planets with a larger human population on them. The idea was to occasionally keep watch of any possible targets the Ori could choose as their next victim before they had enough time to build adequate defenses. So far, the Ori had focused mostly on Quiril, but they knew it was only a matter of time before they stepped up their game, especially now after they got kicked hard on Quiril.

Passing above Caledonia and the Rand Protectorate's border on high altitude, more than certain his stealth system was more than enough to make him invisible to the people on the ground, Scott was spending his time watching his viper's sensor readings of the surface below, without a worry on his mind. He actually wasn't allowed to do this as his orders were to simply stay in orbit, but it was so boring that, occasionally, he needed to plunge into the planet's atmosphere to see how his viper would fly. After all, the viper was a bird meant for extreme performance in the atmosphere, even more than in space where wings didn't give you any advantage.

As he contemplated how, maybe, it was time to return into space, since he was burning a lot of fuel while flying inside the planet's atmosphere, the viper's sensors began beeping. Taking the warning seriously, he quickly climbed up back into space. As he left the atmosphere, he pushed a button that made his viper cloak. Now he could in peace and relative safety check what the unknown object the sensors had detected approaching the planet was.

Seeing that the object was still far away and on a direct course for the planet, he simply turned off his engines and all other power hungry systems that could, even through the cloak, give away his position. He knew why he was here and who could come knocking on the door, and believing that his ship's cloak was impenetrable even against the Ori advanced sensors would be very stupid on his part, not to mention perilous.

Having waited for the next five minutes, he was finally able to see what was coming his way. A single Ori ship had just taken geostationary orbit above the Rand Protectorate. Minutes later, a much smaller craft exited the large toilet looking ship, with something attached underneath. The subsequent energy transfer, indicative of a ring transport, his ship's sensors were able to pick up was a definite confirmation of what he had already suspected the smaller craft had carried to the surface of the planet. Apparently this was the next planet on the Ori list that needed to be conquered. Quickly inputting a few commands, Scott sent an encrypted message through subspace to the ship that left him here more than six hours ago.

It didn't take long before he received a reply with orders to remain at safe distance for the next few hours while performing passive scans before setting course for the most distant planet in the system where the ship would pick him up. Scott sighed inwardly, thinking how this mission would last even longer than usual, with his legs already feeling all cramped up inside the small cockpit.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**


	17. Decisions

**Author's note. **Happy new year to everyone! As promised, first week of the new year and another chapter is up, one with a few twists and many important revelations.

**Senrab Nomis: **The involvement of the Terrans has given the Tikal some breeding space, but you're right, it won't be that easy.

The Jaffa are finally doing well, but the sneaky Aschen are planning to take the fight back. How it will be revealed in a few chapters.

They were very lucky on Quiril. Uncertain if they can repeat it on another planet. The gate exploding is a very good deterrent. More in this chapter.

**stormwolf3710: **You weren't too sleepy, there is a twist here.

**EvilTheLast: **Thanks

**Kami No Raijin: **Yup. A race completely different from any human race.

**Thanks to my beta for helping out. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter too.**

* * *

**Furlings Galaxy – Cydonia  
**_stardate: 2564.96_

Since the Edenians arrival in this new galaxy, far away from the planet they call home, they had managed to accomplish things that many would deem as being nothing less than miracles. In that time, they were able to build their new colony on the planet's surface where they would live until the day when their mission had been completed. The newly built city wasn't large, but it was enough to house their entire population and to provide them with everything they needed in everyday life. They had also built four shipyards on the mainland and the rest of the manufacturing facilities that were needed in order to provide the materials and components for those shipyards. As a result, expect for a small group of people, the entire population, comprised of more than fifty thousand people, had transferred from the flying city to the mainland.

Soren was standing in the newly built main tower where the new control center had been placed. He was awaiting the arrival of one N'Gati ship coming here in order to deliver their delegation.

"How long until the N'Gati ship reaches us?" Soren asked.

"They will be here in less than five minutes," the reply came from the operator in front of him.

"Notify the city-ship the N'Gati are close and that they need to cloak the city now," Soren said. The idea was to hide the city from any visitors, no matter if they were deemed allies or not. Whoever would see the floating city, would inevitably have many questions that Soren didn't want to have to answer to. With the floating city now cloaked, there was nothing else to do except to wait for the N'Gati to show up.

Five minutes later, the N'Gati ship entered geostationary orbit above the planet, immediately contacting them asking for landing coordinates. Waiting patiently and not having anything else to do, Soren watched as a small craft quickly descended into the planet's atmosphere, landing in front of the tower he was in. Ten more minutes after the landing, and the small delegation of four N'Gati was escorted to the conference room, a separate part of the command center. Inside, Soren waited until the four delegates were seated before sitting as well on the head of the table with Nolan sitting next to him.

"Welcome to Cydonia, our new colony," Soren said to the four guests.

"We are glad to be here. I believe there is much we need to discuss," the closest N'Gati replied.

"Yes there is, and I also hope this will be the beginning of a long and beneficial friendship between our two people."

"Yes, this is our main goal as well, but we have some more immediate concerns that we need to discuss first; concerns very important for the future of not only the N'Gati, but for many other races in this corner of the galaxy as well."

"Oh, please explain."

"I am not certain if you are aware of the extent of the changes your arrival has steered. As you know, this region of space is mostly controlled through fear and intimidation by a race called the Sanarians."

"Yes, of course. We knew we would have to deal with the Sanarians from the moment we faced them in battle when we helped one of your ships."

"Yes, yes, that incident was the beginning of the change I am talking about. And that incident has assured that your race will always have a friend in the N'Gati people, but the greatest change didn't happen that day."

"I'm not certain if I understand where you are going with this?"

"Is it not true that several of your ships have faced the Sanarians in battle in the Batari system?"

"It is," Soren replied. "They attacked our ships and we retaliated."

"Of course you have, the same way as we would have done, but what you are probably not aware is how many races witnessed that battle. A battle that you have won even though the Sanarians had more ships at their disposal."

"I'm aware of that fact. Our ships in general, and especially our warships, are more advanced than the Sanarian equivalent."

"Yes, we became aware of that fact from the moment your ship, the Intrepid I believe it is called, was easily able to first detect the two cloaked Sanarian ships and subsequently capable of fighting them on more than just even terms. Even more outstanding was when the captain of the Intrepid told us that his ship is an exploration vessel and not a warship."

"Well, we always tend to build ships capable of defending themselves no matter what their primary purpose is."

"Of course, of course, but the incident in the Batari system showed many races present there the Sanarians are not as invincible as they all previously believed. Up until now, we the N'Gati, were the only race who has openly opposed the Sanarians, but with your actions in the Batari system, many races are starting to believe a more aggressive approach to the Sanarian problem is advisable and that victory is after all possible."

"I'm not certain were you are going with this."

"After having learned that we had direct contact with you, many races came to us, asking if they could meet you. They are open to the possibility of creating a coalition of races with the purpose of opposing the Sanarians."

"Okay, but what have we to do with this exactly? Why haven't you formed such coalition already?"

"The problem is that the coalition will not become a reality if you are not in it. All races have asked us to relay you a message. They want the coalition to be led by you."

This came as a shock to Soren. It was strange to him that races they had never even met would want something like that. "I'm sorry, but I'm not sure if I understand correctly what you are saying. These races want for us to lead an alliance with the sole purpose of fighting the Sanarians, is that what you are saying?"

"Yes, that is exactly what I am saying."

"But we don't know these races and they don't know us. Isn't this going a little too fast? A minute ago I thought we would have talked about a possible alliance between our two people and not a coalition between, how many races?"

"More than a dozen races have already contacted us, and I believe more are waiting to see how the initial talks will proceed before doing the same."

"I don't know. Why would they place so much fate in us before even having met us?"

"I understand your shock at this news, believe me, but you must understand that many races have lived under the constant threat of the Sanarians. They are seeing an opportunity here to finally become free from the Sanarian tyranny and they don't want to lose that opportunity. You should also take into account that no matter how technologically more advanced you are, you don't have the numbers to face the Sanarians on your own, something that the last incident has unfortunately showed." the N'Gati said, referring to the destruction of one of their warships.

Soren also knew this to be true. From the Sanarian ship's logs they had been able to acquire in the Batari system, he knew the Sanarians had hundreds of ships at their disposal while they currently had, well, six. An alliance with other races, races capable of leveling the playing field could be beneficial for everybody. "How were you planning on proceeding with this coalition?"

"Our idea was to deliver the message and if you were open to the idea of a coalition, to set up a meeting in neutral territory, somewhere where we all can meet. Also, even if you weren't prepared for such commitment we would like to ask you to give us something."

"Oh, and what would that be?" Soren asked even though he had a good idea what it was.

"Even without your direct involvement, if you give us the means to detect the Sanarian ships while they are cloaked, we believe the coalition could still become a reality. Without the ability to be invisible to our sensors, the Sanarians will lose their greatest advantage and I believe this technology to be enough for the coalition to happen even if you are not willing to participate."

Soren wasn't certain if he wanted to be part of this coalition. On one hand, the Sanarians were apparently a problem for everyone, them included. On the other hand, their mission here wasn't to start a massive war in this region and he knew that if he agreed to join such coalition they would be obligated to see it through to the end. The second problem was that the N'Gati were asking for technology that would allow them to see the Sanarian warships. He didn't know how these races could so easily trust them, so much that they were ready to blindly join into an alliance before even having met them. He also didn't know if he trusted the N'Gati enough to give them any technology for that matter and the Alterran way had always been to slowly build trust and only after a longer period of time to start sharing something with any other race. "You gave me a lot to think about ambassador. I am not ready to give you an answer to any of the questions you have asked me today, not immediately anyway. I will have to take some time to think about this."

"Of course, of course. These are important decisions that shouldn't be rushed."

"We have also prepared accommodations for you if you would like to stay on the planet for a few days so that you can visit our colony."

"I would appreciate that very much. There is no better way to learn from each other than to spend some time together."

"I'm pleased to hear that," Soren said, tapping a button on his wristband, shortly followed by another Edenian entering the room. Soren pointed at the newcomer, "If you would like to follow him, he will show you your accommodations and provide you with everything you require if it is in our ability to do so."

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Wraith Base  
**_stardate: 2566.81_

After the hurried upgrade of the Apollo, Ellis and his ship had been sent to the Pegasus galaxy. His ship, as well as any other available BC-304, had all been dispatched there. Those on top had deemed the BC-304s not the perfect choice for fighting the Ori ships, but for running around the Pegasus galaxy in search for the strange grey aliens and maybe even the Wraith, the ship was perfect, even more so when the ship would have support from three or more AF-307s. The assault frigate was far from being called a capital ship. Small and maneuverable, with decent shields, the ship lacked the firepower to deliver a deadly blow to larger ships like Wraith hives or the Ori toilets, but when the ship would be used in conjunction with other ships of the same type they would form a sort of wolf pack, capable of quickly outmaneuvering and surrounding larger ships with ease. The ships had such superior maneuverability compared to other larger ships that the main problem the enemy would have was if they could even hit the nimble ships. With the addition of more railguns and plasma repeaters the ship had compared to the Daedalus class, it was safe to say the frigate could provide a screening role even against a large number of fighters with relative ease; something other capital ships lacked if compared to their size. Also, the frigate did provide a serious threat to larger ships as well, since it had a single plasma beam weapon comparable in power with those installed on the Daedalus. The only negative side was that the fire rate of the beam weapon was lower than of those installed on the Daedalus, since the ship didn't have the power generation capabilities of other capital ships.

Traveling through hyperspace, the Apollo and its three escorts were making their way to the planet where the probe had detected the anomalous readings. Colonel Ellis knew that such readings, those the probe had sent back, were no certain indication that, once there, they would find what they were looking for. In the past few weeks, the colonel had visited three other worlds that had given similar, but still faulty readings and he was already prepared to receive yet another disappointment. The search for the Wraith and the grey aliens so far had given no results whatsoever. It was as if the two races had fallen from the face of the… galaxy.

Finally having reached the designated planet, the four ships reverted back to normal space close to the planet's orbit and immediately got greeted by a shit load of energy bolts from the massive hive in front of them.

Many in the Terran military didn't share the same uptight, bordering to tyrannical, way of ruling ships like Colonel Ellis did, but in this particular case, it had been the only thing that had saved the ship. With several protocols the Colonel had installed on his ship, there was no exiting hyperspace in unknown territory without having the ship's shields on maximum and the weapons already brought online. Furthermore, if they got attacked upon exiting hyperspace, the weapons officer was under orders to fire back immediately without waiting for the captain to order it first.

Probably startling even the Wraith of the hive in front of them, the moment the Apollo got hit, four beams of compressed and superheated plasma streaked back at the hive hitting the ship in full. The ship, closely followed by the three frigates, quickly began evasive maneuvers in order to get away from the rain of energy bolts coming their way. There was no waiting with Ellis. They had practiced such scenarios so many times that the crew was doing it out of reflex, and Ellis was glad to see the three frigates were able to keep up with them. After all, the fastest way to get killed in situations like this one was to start panicking and do nothing.

"Status!"

"Shields at 68 percent. Currently we are performing evasive maneuvers to get away from their weapon's fire."

"Good, what about the frigates?"

"They are trying to get behind the Wraith hive while evading as much of the hive's weapons as they can. Sir, there is also something else."

"What is it Lieutenant?"

"From what we know of the Wraith hives, our weapons should have done considerably more damage to the hive than what they did."

"What are you saying Lieutenant?"

"I'm saying that this hive is different from what we have previously encountered. Its organic armor was able to stop the beams from going through."

This was not the news Ellis was hoping for. "Follow the three frigates and get us behind the hive. If their hull is stronger and we don't know by how much, the best way to disable the hive right now is to target their sublight and hyperdrive engines."

Under the skillful piloting of the pilot, the Apollo first made a large turn to get away from the energy bolts coming its way and then making a sharp turn that quickly put the ship behind the much less maneuverable hive. Even before the ship could reach the perfect position to fire at the rear engines of the hive, the wolf pack was already doing the same, firing with their single plasma beam at the rear of the massive ship. Apparently the captains of the three frigates had the same idea.

Adding their own fire in the form of four lances of destructive energy, the hive ships got hit in the… butt several times, with secondary explosions clear indication that the ship had incurred considerable damage. By now though, the three frigates were already having their hands full with the swarm of darts that had exited the hive. There were hundreds of them and they all knew that even with their relatively weak weapons, when there were so many of them, they could pose a considerable threat to the Terran ships. Beginning their relentless fire from the many railguns and plasma repeaters, the frigates changed their role. Instead of attacking the hive ship, they turned into a perfect screening force.

Ellis cursed, thinking how it would be great if the Daedalus got PDLs installed like the larger ships had been. The PDLs had very low power, but with their high rate of fire and perfect accuracy, they were the perfect tool to deal with darts. And yet, they had to do what they could with what they had.

"Load tubes one through eight with Type I conventional missiles and target the darts," Ellis ordered. The type I were the smallest and fastest conventional missiles at their disposal, the same type as those loaded on their fighters. They would be unable to do any damage to a ship like a hive, but for chasing darts, they were perfect.

Missiles began spewing out of the Apollo in droves, only to be followed by more once they could be loaded. The three frigates as well decided to do the same, adding more firepower with their missiles. And yet, the number of darts looked as if it was increasing instead of diminishing and this by far wasn't the worst part of the day.

"Sir, I'm detecting more ships exiting the planet's atmosphere," the sensors officer said while reading from his console.

"How many?" Ellis asked.

"Eight more hives sir."

This was the perfect moment in which, by all known standards, loud and prolonged cursing, in which excrements followed by unflattering references to mothers could be spoken, and it would be something nobody would label as being inappropriate; definitely not for such situation. And yet, Ellis wasn't the type of man to curse in such situations. Instead, he calmly took a deep breath, trying to lower his blood pressure, "Notify all ships. We are leaving."

Without too much fuss, the four ships regrouped far away from the hive and its weapon's range, opening a single hyperspace window and speeding inside. There was time to fight and there was time when fighting would only get you killed. Ellis didn't like it, especially after having spent so much time searching for the Wraith, and now that they had finally found them, they had no other choice than to leave. He knew that before they could gather a force to face so many hives, the ships would be far gone and he really didn't like that fact.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Heliopolis  
**_stardate: 2571.39_

For the first time since the formation of the Second Great Alliance, the four races had gathered all together to discuss the Ori problem. Lya, Thor, Jack and Liam had already gathered inside a small conference room where the very important discussion was about to begin.

"How are operations proceeding on Quiril?" Thor asked Jack.

"Great! They are going really great. After the scare we got with the gate almost exploding, things quickly turned in our favor. The capital of Quiril is now under our control and Anderson is making his way from the south with little resistance from the Ori, which is easily understandable since we have orbital support," Jack answered to Thor.

"Why would the Ori try to detonate the gate?" Lya asked, worried. "Is it not their intention to convert humans to their religion?"

"Yeah, if they can," Jack said. "But apparently if they are sure we are getting the upper hand, they have no problem committing mass murder, or at least try to commit."

"Yes, it was fortunate Liam was able to thwart their plan," Thor added. "Something I am uncertain if it would work again if the same situation presents itself."

"You're right on that one. We cut it pretty close this time, and it was only because of Liam's ability to dial the Ori galaxy that he was able to stop the gate from overloading," Jack said, thinking how they had been lucky this time and that _that_ wouldn't always be the case. "And we can't expect Liam to be there the next time to diffuse another gate."

"Why not?" Liam asked in puzzlement.

Jack gave him a strange glare, "Liam, how often do you see leaders go in to the thick of the battle? Do you see me or someone from the Asgard council rushing in?"

"No, no… but I'm different. I can take care of myself better than anyone else," Liam responded.

"Not the point Liam and you very well know it," Lya said with an accusing tone. "Your place is to lead the Guardians and not to be in the radius blast of a stargate."

"She's right you know," Jack said, before thinking of something, "By the way, do gates really need to be made of Naquadah so that they can explode like no other weapon we know of. I'm asking because this is not the first time this happened and while I do think stargates are a great thing, the fact that they tend to explode is not very reassuring."

"Yes Liam, why don't you explain to him why all the gates around the galaxy are made of Naquadah?" Lya added, staring at him and smiling wickedly.

Liam returned the stare back at Lya before shrugging. "Yeah, yeah, the Nox were right and we the Alterrans were wrong, happy now?"

"Yes, I am. Thank you," Lya replied simply.

"What is she talking about?" Jack asked.

Liam sighed. "A long time ago the Nox warned my people that building gates made of Naquadah just because they would survive the passage of time better, wasn't reason enough to place something on planets that can go boom, but at the time my people believed that there was no race with the technology necessary to make them explode anywhere in the neighborhood, so we build them anyway."

"So, it is possible," Jack asked in confirmation.

"Yes, and it is also much easier to build them that way," Lya began answering. "The gate we instructed the Tollans on how to build needs only trace amounts of Naquadah as the superconductive material to transfer energy from a power source to the internal energy capacitor. I believe the Tollans mostly used Trinium to build the rest of their stargate."

"I do not like interrupting other's conversations, but are we not here to discuss other, more important matters?" Thor asked.

Jack looked at Thor quizzically. "Yes… we are."

"Thor is right. Let's discuss what we are going to do with the planets the Ori have targeted after we took back Quiril," Liam said.

"Well, as far as the Rand Protectorate goes, I'm not sure what to do. The planet hasn't been taken over like Quiril. The Rand Protectorate is willingly embracing Origin. So, do we even have the right to do anything to stop it?" Jack asked, while also explaining the major difference between what had transpired on Quiril and what is happening in the Rand Protectorate.

"What about the Caledonians?" Lya asked. "Are they embracing Origin as well?"

"No, but the Ori are not spreading their religion past the border. They are keeping their preaching inside the Rand Protectorate and that's it," Jack said.

"I'm not sure that this is entirely true though. From the information we have gathered, they are teaching a lot of people down there in the ways of Origin, and not in the way of simply getting followers that would prostrate to them. They are teaching those people more on how to spread Origin in their name," Liam added.

"So they are creating a sort of human version of the priors that would do the spreading of Origin on other worlds?"

"That's my thinking. They must believe that since those people are humans from this galaxy, we wouldn't stop them since it is their free will to go around the galaxy and spread Origin. The problem is that they might be right about that," Liam said thoughtfully. "Do we have the right to stop humans from spreading _any_ religion to other humans just because we don't approve of that particular religion? And also, what actions can we take against them? While I have no problem killing any prior who goes around spreading diseases if you don't embrace Origin, I'm not sure I can go around killing humans who are spreading the same religion. It is their free will, and if those who listen choose to join their religion, it is their free will as well and I don't feel I should do anything to stop it."

"I share the same belief. If humans teach other humans about Origin without any repercussions if they choose differently, we should do nothing to stop it," Lya added.

"Aaaah, this is just a large pile of crap if you ask me. The Ori cannot possibly believe they can convert enough people this way. If they are sending salesmen to preach about Origin, we can send our own salesmen to preach against it and they will never convert billions, and Tagrea is proof of that," Jack said thinking about the other planet the Ori had visited only recently and that had opposed the teachings of Origin. "The situation on the planet is now almost the same as it was on Quiril not so long ago."

"That's true. They are stepping up in any way they can," Liam added. "What are we going to do with Tagrea?"

"We need to take into account that the Ori will probably take precautions to prevent anyone to stop the gate from exploding this time," Thor added.

"Yeah, our involvement on Tagrea could very well make the Ori decide to detonate the stargate and this time with precautions so that we can't stop it in time. It was only luck Liam was inside the building when they tried the first time," Jack said.

"I'm not sure if we can do anything. This tactic of using the gate as a bomb is really messing up things," Liam said thoughtfully.

"I don't think we should do anything for now. Not until we can come up with a plan to neutralize the gate. We should focus more on protecting other planets from being taken in the first place and leave those that already have, at least for now."

Liam was about to reluctantly agree with Jack when he stopped in his tracks. He was looking at the ceiling, puzzled, "Oh, this is something I really didn't expect."

Before anyone could ask Liam what he meant, a bright light came down from the ceiling, slowly descending before taking human form. They all understood why Liam was so puzzled, although they didn't really know how he knew in advance, even before the entity became visible.

As the ascended being took human form, taking the first available place around the large table, he spoke. "Hello."

"Hi there," Jack said. "Is there something we can do for you?"

The man standing in front of them turned to face Jack, smiling. "Now that you asked, there is."

This wasn't the way Jack thought the ascended being would answer. Sometimes sarcasm simply backfires on you. Still, with Jack being Jack…"Are you sure? I mean, from what I know about you bunch, there is not much you _can't _do so…"

"On the contrary. With so many rules upstairs, there is a lot that you can do that we can't," the man said before turning to face Liam. "Liam, nice to see you again."

Liam scrutinized the man for a moment trying to remember. "Ilium, nice to see you too. I'm a little stunned by your appearance though, so you'll have to excuse me for being so speechless."

"No need to apologize, not for this anyway," Ilium said without explaining any further, something Liam didn't particularly like or know what he exactly meant by that.

"You know him?" Jack asked Liam, since a deafening silence had fallen in the room that he didn't like at all.

"I do and let me introduce to you Ilium, one of the ascended Elders and the oldest ascended Alterran I know of."

Jack leaned toward Liam before whispering, "How old is he?"

"Well, somewhere around eight million years… and you don't have to whisper. He can hear you even if he wasn't in this star system."

"Oh, good to know," Jack said, while sheepishly glancing at the man. "So, what brings you to our little corner of the galaxy?"

"I came here to warn you that if you do nothing against the Ori when they take control of a planet, they will inevitably gain enough followers to come in this galaxy in person."

"And if that happens you'll do what exactly," Jack asked.

"In that case we will fight them… and we will inevitably lose," Ilium answered simply.

"Eh, you see, that's something that I really didn't want to hear."

"Ilium, you must be aware of what has transpired on Quiril and that there is a great chance of that happening again. Next time, with possibly devastating consequences," Thor asked.

"I am. It is a conundrum you must solve. You must find a way to stop the Ori from taking too many planets or they will have enough worshippers to come here in person."

"Any tips on how to do that?" Jack asked.

"No, no tips," Ilium replied.

Jack sighed, "Okay, let's make a deal. We go there and beat the crap out of the Ori followers while the only thing you have to do is to make the gate disappear before it blows up. Deal?"

"No deal."

"Why not?" Jack asked slowly losing his patients. He didn't like the ascended beings not doing anything before and he liked even less them asking for help in stopping the Ori while still doing nothing.

"Because nothing has changed. We still do not interfere with the lower planes of existence and this intrusion of mine is only to let you know what to expect if you do nothing," Ilium explained.

"Eh, you see, this is where we disagree, big time," Jack said, not paying attention to Liam who was shaking his head trying to tell him to not go there. "When it was the Goa'uld then okay, I get you not wanting to get involved, except maybe when it was Anubis the one we had to deal with. But now that the Ori are threatening us, and you as well, I really don't get it. Can you please explain why you are not doing anything to help?"

Ilium stood there motionless for a good minute before replying. "So you would want us to interfere with the lower planes? But where would you place the line we shouldn't cross. You would want us to help you with the Ori. Would you want us also to help you heal the sick as well? After all, on your planet alone more people have died in car accidents than the Ori have killed thus far," Ilium asked, clearly going somewhere with this.

"Why not. You help with the Ori and you cure the sick. I can live with that."

"But then, there are many more people dying from hunger on your planet. Wouldn't you want us to help them too?"

"Of course, why not? You get the entire planet fed. I don't see what's wrong with that."

"Well, that's where you are wrong. If we cure the sick and feed the hungry, why would you have to do anything? The two most basic needs would be provided by us freely. Why would your people even have to get up in the morning? They could stay at home, spending their entire day watching what you call reality shows knowing that if they get sick or begin to starve we would take care of them. And this is not the worst part either. How long do you think it would take before we would need to step in by telling your people how they should live their lives, with humans on your world becoming completely reliant on us for every need or decision?

"Do you think that you could think of yourself as being free if that was to happen? Keep in mind that even at this exact moment, many humans on your planet do not behave in a way we would like for our children to behave. Would you want us to instate rules that would force people to behave the way _we_ would want them to, the way we believe is the right way? And what kind of punishment should we instate if they do not follow our rules? In the end, how long do you think it would take before you start thinking of us the same way as you do of the Ori? How long before you start calling us tyrants?"

"Alright, alright, I get the point. Maybe you shouldn't interfere with the lower plane even if it is to help, but the Ori are still a separate matter entirely."

"Maybe, but you should understand that there isn't one ascended being upstairs with one idea on how to do things. There are many millions of us, all with their own opinions. If we, the Elders decide to break the rules this time, how long do you think it would take before other ascended beings decide to start meddling into your affairs when they deem it necessary? This is the reason why we can make only two possible choices. Meddle in the affairs of the mortal plane, or not. There is no middle ground. Besides, there is someone here who's more than capable of meddling into matters that he shouldn't and we are not stopping him," Ilium finished while looking at Liam.

"Here we go. Somehow I was hundred and ten percent sure you were going to finish with me, even before you started your speech," Liam said.

"And why wouldn't I? Your meddling into this plane has screwed up a lot of things," Ilium said with an accusing tone.

"Hey, for the past five years Liam has done more for us than anyone else and you have no right to say he screwed up things," Jack said, but by looking at Liam he noticed the worried expression on his face.

"That is because you don't know the future that would have come to pass if Liam hadn't come back to this mortal plane."

Jack looked puzzled at Liam, "What is he talking about?"

"I'm not certain on the details, but I know the Elders are capable of predicting possible futures with great accuracy," Liam said.

"That we are and our predictions have shown that the future would have turned out very differently if Liam hadn't returned to the lower plane. We have predicted that, without him, you would by now have already won against the Ori, more than two years ago, and you also wouldn't have to face the many new enemies that are currently threatening you, especially those coming from beyond the anomaly in the Andromeda galaxy. If he remained in the higher plane, your current and biggest problem would be the Lucian Alliance, far from a threat on par with the Ori, much less the Vargas," Ilium finished while giving Liam not a very pleasant stare.

"Wait, wait, how can you possibly know that?" Jack asked.

"Because if he hadn't returned to the lower plane, you would have never traveled back in time to Camelot and you wouldn't have stopped Merlin from building the weapon capable of destroying the Ori. Without you going back in time, Merlin would have spent the next fifty years perfecting the weapon with the entire knowledge of when he was ascended at his disposal. Instead, you now don't have anything that can destroy all the Ori at once. And let's not mention that if he didn't inhabit the Andromeda galaxy, you would never have met the Senari and all the troubles that _will_ follow from that."

Liam didn't like what he had just heard and even less the fact that Ilium would not lie on something like this. If Ilium said the future would have been better for the Milky Way galaxy if he had never returned, then it had to be true.

"Ilium, can you answer another question? What would have happened to my race if Liam hadn't returned?" Thor asked.

Ilium waited for a moment before replying, "If he hadn't returned, the Asgard would be no more. The degenerative disease would have killed you."

"Then I can safely say that all Asgard who are still alive are glad that Liam did return," Thor said, nodding solemnly to Liam.

"What the hell, I'm glad he's here too," Jack added. "We here in the lower plane don't have the ability to predict the future, so we have no way of knowing what the consequences of our actions will be. The only thing that we _can_ do is to do our best to improve things and Liam so far has done just that."

Ilium turned to look at Lya of the Nox who was smiling, "You know where the Nox stand in all of this, so no point in explaining."

"Yes, I know," Ilium replied, shrugging. This group was really a strange bunch, but if nothing else, he could safely say they were a united bunch. Ilium smiled, thinking how there was still hope for them. "Well then, I think I have done enough for today so, I'll take my leave now."

Before anyone could say anything Ilium turned into pure energy, quickly disappearing through the first wall he could find, something Jack didn't like. "What the hell! He didn't do anything except giving us a headache with his nonsense."

"Actually he has given us a lot," Liam said.

"What are you talking about?" Jack asked.

"Well, he told us what will happen if we do nothing, and that's something."

"Yeah, but he didn't tell us how to solve our little problem of the gate exploding so…"

"He didn't tell us because going and freeing worlds as they get conquered by the Ori is not the solution. Even if we find a way to disable the gate the next time, sooner or later they will succeed simply because they have unlimited resources coming from their own galaxy. They can try endless times and they will eventually find a way to win a battle or two."

"Okay, so now I'm confused. Are we going to free Tagrea or not?"

"We are not because we are going to attack the Ori galaxy instead, the only way we can end this. Also the fact that he mentioned Merlin and the device I am building, saying that it took Merlin fifty years to finish it with all the knowledge he had at his disposal, is probably him telling me that I won't be able to build the same device in time. So you see, he did tell us a lot of very helpful things and he showed us the real path, the only way we can end this."

"Well, if you say so. I was more of the opinion that he came here to criticize us than anything else," Jack said.

"I was of the same opinion, although what Liam just explained does make sense," Thor added.

The room fell silent, with everyone thinking of the conversation they'd just had with Ilium, apparently the oldest Alterran still in existence. In the end, the group decided they had discussed the matter of the Ori for long enough and that a recess was in order. They would reconvene tomorrow to continue the discussion and maybe with a clear head come up with a plan that would finally end the Ori incursion into this galaxy.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Asura  
**_stardate:2576.37_

Bad news travel fast, and the news of the nine Wraith hives the Apollo had faced in battle reached Atlantis in record time. The Wraith were once again up to something and nobody liked it. After the departure of the Apollo, whose captain had smartly decided it would have been a bad thing to try to face nine hives, the Terrans had diverted a nearby spy-ship to check out the system. Unfortunately, the news wasn't good.

"There are no ships there, not anymore. They must have left in a hurry because the base on the planet has been left behind empty," John said to the assorted people in the conference room in Atlantis.

Weir, Woolsey and Lorne looked at each other. Without knowing where the hives were directed, they were all in danger, the space station included.

"What is this I'm hearing the hives were tougher than usual?" Lorne asked, wanting to know what to expect if they decide to pay a visit to the space station.

"Ellis sent us the sensors logs of the battle and their hull does seem more resistant to our weapons," John replied.

"This is in line with what we found in one of their labs. We know they were improving their organic armor, as well as many other things," Weir said. She wanted to add something more, but the sudden entrance of Rodney made her stop. "Rodney, you're late."

"Sorry, but I was checking something important," Rodney said while taking his place around the rounded table.

"Rodney, what can be more important than this?" John asked, irritated.

"Maybe the fact that those hives were not the only ones to take a trip through hyperspace," Rodney replied, annoyed at John's accusation.

"What do you mean?" John asked, already dreading the answer.

"You remember I have upgraded the satellite network's protocols so that they are able to send us telemetry of any hyperspace window that opens near a satellite?" Rodney asked rhetorically, before explaining. "Well, the satellites detected three more star systems from where the Wraith had departed and in each system the hyperspace window was strong enough for five or six ships to go through. I can't say if they were all hives, but that's a good bet."

"Oh come on! Are you saying that we have at least two dozen hives on the loose somewhere in the galaxy?" John asked. He had dreaded the answer, but in his wildest dreams he didn't think it would have been that bad.

"Yeah, I know, not the answer you were looking for, but there is good news too; if it could be called that way," Rodney said. "Through the satellite network I was able to track them every time they exited hyperspace."

"That _is _good news Rodney. Why are you saying if it could be called that way?" Weir asked.

"Because the jumps they are making are way farther apart than what they were usually able to do. Plus they are splitting up. Most of the hives are regrouping in one point, while a few of them are going for a few human planets."

Weir thought how the ships that were evidently preparing on culling planets were a problem, but still the hives that were converging into one point was the thing that frightened her the most. "Where are they going Rodney?"

"At the edge of the Pegasus galaxy," Rodney replied, shrugging, "Straight for the Milky Way."

"I thought the Wraith didn't have intergalactic hyperdrives?" Woolsey asked.

"They don't, their hyperdrives are much slower than ours, but if they have solved their problem of having to stop every few thousand light years to regenerate their hull, they can, theoretically, reach the Milky Way."

"And that's why they were researching how to clone humans and better power generation," John said.

The Wraith were using a form of organic cold fusion, not dissimilar from what Linea, the destroyer of worlds, did to escape Hadante with SG-1's help. The Wraith didn't have generators in the usual sense. They instead had cold fusion that ran through their entire ships, like veins would distribute blood to the human body. It was the reason why their ships didn't have shields or why no other method, like simply adding more Naquadah reactors, could work on their ships. The system was simply too different to work that way. If they were able to increase their ship's energy reserves, as well as being able to clone humans for food, there was no real reason why they couldn't reach the Milky Way galaxy.

"It will take them a lot of time, six months if these few jumps are any indication, but they _will _reach the Milky Way if we don't stop them," Rodney said.

Before anyone could reply, a bright beam of silver light deposited Thor in the room. Apparently the Valhalla had reached Atlantis.

It took them a few minutes to get Thor up to speed, but once they did, Thor was already thinking of a way to stop them. "Doctor McKay, do you have the ability to calculate the convergence point of the Wraith hives?"

"Yes I do, with a margin of error of point one light year," Rodney replied.

"Point one light year is not a small region of space, not if we are planning to ambush them," Thor replied. "Nevertheless, we must at least try."

"I think I have a plan, but let's first see what we are going to do with the hives that are going to cull human worlds. With their hull being stronger, I don't think the satellites we have placed in orbit will be enough to stop them," John said.

"The six O'Neills can take care of the lone hives no matter what kind of improvements they have devised. The 304s and the Valhalla will take the rest of the Wraith hives."

"It does sound like a good plan. This way we won't have to use more than one 304 for every Wraith hive. I'll go with Thor to try and stop the brunt of their force," John said, wanting to be in the thick of the battle.

"No John, Thor can be in charge of the fleet. You and Rodney will go to the empty Wraith outpost to find anything useful we can use," Weir said.

John didn't like it. He didn't like the idea of having to babysit a bunch of scientists while they were trying to access the Wraith outpost, but Weir's expression told him there would be no discussion on the subject, "Fine."

The five people in the room went through the remaining details of their plan to stop the Wraith from culling planets or leaving the Pegasus galaxy and of the need to go through the outpost the Wraith had left behind. It was rare for the Wraith to leave anything behind unattended and they could not miss such an opportunity. With everything set, the five people left, all going in separate directions.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Wraith Base  
**_stardate: 2585.82_

Rodney, John and many other scientists and soldiers had been beamed inside the Wraith base on the surface of the planet after having been brought there by the Copernic, the science vessel under the command of Nicholas Rush. It was the only means of transportation they could get since the rest of the fleet was otherwise preoccupied. It wasn't a bad idea either since the Copernic was more than capable of scanning the planet's surface with its powerful sensors, making sure the planet indeed didn't have more Wraith on it.

The first thing that Rodney was able to discern was that this base was different. Of course there were walls and consoles in the usual Wraith organic style, but he could easily see that this place was once a Lantean outpost. This was a fact that Rodney liked very much, since it was going to be much easier to go through the various systems than if there were only Wraith consoles around.

"Huh," Rodney said while looking at his tablet hooked up into one of the few Lantean consoles in the room.

"What is it Rodney?" John asked.

"I'm not sure yet, but I think this place was the Lantean outpost where they were performing experiments on the Iratus bug more than ten thousand years ago," Rodney said, fully immersed in his tablet.

"You mean the place where the Lanteans first turned into the Wraith?" John asked, now more than ever puzzled why would the Wraith leave this place for them to search through.

"Yes."

"The place where the Lanteans tried to acquire telepathic abilities? That place?" John asked again, still uncertain if he understood Rodney correctly.

"Yes! No," Rodney replied, changing his response abruptly after having read something on his tablet.

"Yes or no Rodney, it can't be both!"

"Yes this is the outpost, and no, they were not trying to get telepathic abilities," Rodney replied with a disgusted expression on his face, "Oh, these Lanteans were really a bunch of disturbed people, at least those who worked here."

"Rodney! Start explaining things or I'm going to slap you. What did you mean by that?" John asked, impatiently.

"Can you please dial it down? I was coming to that," Rodney replied, before beginning his explanation. "The Lanteans here weren't interested in the Iratus bug's telepathic abilities as we thought. They were interested in their feeding process."

"What are you talking about?"

"The Lanteans were obsessed with ascension, and they found out that the Iratus bug sucks the life force of their victims, something Liam has called the core energy. He believes that, once you shed your physical body when you ascend, this core energy is what is transferred into the higher plane of existence, and the Lanteans were trying to gain the Iratus bug's ability to suck that energy from other living beings."

"Isn't ascension more a process involving enlightenment or more like a specific state of mind?"

"Yes-yes… it has something to do with that, but the physical attributes are as important as the state of mind. Look, from how I understand it, the more advanced you are, the more core energy you have. You can think of the mental component as a way to align this core energy so it can create a self-sustainable energy matrix that doesn't break once you die. The Lanteans believed they were not advanced enough so that no matter how much they tried it, they would never be able to shed their physical bodies. That is why they tried to use that machine to change their genetic code making them more advanced. The problem with that machine was that more would die in the process than how many would ascend."

"And the people in this outpost didn't want to risk it," John said, understanding.

"Exactly, so, even without being advanced enough they thought that with the ability to suck the core energy from other living creatures, they would be able to achieve the same thing, but of course things didn't turn out how they'd planned."

"They turned into the Wraith."

"Yes, and the negative side effect was that they could only feed on humans, no other living creature like they had planned in the beginning. Plus the change was so drastic that they began feeling, and I quote, _'an insatiable hunger'_. The Iratus bug's instinct of self-preservation also took over and soon they didn't even care for ascension anymore."

"Because to ascend you also need to get to terms with your burdens and your mortality," John said, more to himself than to Rodney.

"Oh, this is getting better and better," Rodney said, shrugging.

"What?"

"Once they turned into the Wraith, they knew the others would never let them live, so they knew they needed an army for the war that would inevitably come. They aerosolized the retrovirus that turned them into the Wraith in the first place and spread it on human worlds. Overnight, they turned thousands of humans into Wraith and the only reason why they didn't continue doing it…"

"…was because they were turning their only food source into Wraith," John concluded.

"Yeah," Rodney said, somberly. "John, if they get to the Milky Way, they can do the same thing there. There are enough humans in the Milky Way that they don't have to worry about creating too many Wraith."

"I get that Rodney. How long would it take you to go through all the data?"

"A lot, but I'm not planning on doing it here. I've already backed up everything on my tablet. I can do that back on Atlantis better and faster."

"Good, because we're leaving," John said before contacting the Copernic in orbit in order to be beamed away from this place.

Rodney barely managed to grab his stuff when the beam enveloped both of them whisking them away.

Rodney and John reappeared on the bridge of the Copernic the next instant.

"Captain Rush, please take us back to Atlantis the moment the other teams are…" John began explaining, but he was interrupted by the ship's alarm.

They all looked around in puzzlement not knowing what was going on. The alarm had started blaring, with doors closing the bridge and the corridors on the ship.

Rush turned to face the first crewman who was sitting behind a console, "What's going on?"

The crewman worked franticly trying to find out why the ship was reacting in such a way. It didn't take long to get the information he needed on his monitor, "Sir, the ship has detected an unknown pathogen in the air the same moment Sheppard and McKay were beamed on board."

Rodney paled after having heard the crewman's reply, "Oh, no-no-no, this is not good, not good."

"Rodney, what's going on?" John asked.

"The retrovirus. That's why they left us the base intact. It was a trap."

"Rodney, our people checked the base before beaming down. There was no trace of any virus in the air."

"Maybe there wasn't, maybe they programmed the base to release it later, once we were all already on the planet; who knows. The point is that we've been all infected. Oh, I knew I should have taken a hazmat suit with me."

"Rodney, don't panic!" John said. "I was infected with the retrovirus already and Beckett found a cure."

"No, you don't understand. This is not the same retrovirus. This one was specifically designed to turn humans into Wraith and they have made the virus in a way that the Lanteans couldn't find a countermeasure," Rodney explained. "The Wraith of the time knew the Lanteans would try to find a cure in order to stop the spreading of the virus."

"So, it's not good," John asked.

"No, it's bad, very bad," Rodney replied, whining.

"Captain, contact Atlantis and tell them what's going on here. And beam the rest of the people still on the planet back on the ship and in isolation," John ordered. "When you're done, we are leaving for Atlantis, immediately."

Rush was still coming to grasp with what was going on. He didn't like what he was hearing. This mission was supposed to last only a few hours before he could return to his usual exploration job, but now it looked as if things had turned for the worse, much worse. Not knowing what else he _could_ do, Rush did what Sheppard told him and fifteen minutes later, they were already on their way to Atlantis. Being infected by a virus that was going to eventually turn them all into Wraith was definitely not how he envisioned his day.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**_stardate: 2588.63_

Jack and Klaus were on their way to one of the many labs on Terrania where Sam had something to show them. Actually, Klaus knew already what it was all about, but Jack didn't.

"Klaus why won't you tell me what's in that lab?" Jack said frustrated.

"Be patient. We'll be there in a minute," Klaus replied, actually liking the idea of Jack squirming not knowing what it was.

"I know your guys found something; whatever it is that Sam is checking now," Jack said.

The two of them went through the last corridor, quickly reaching the desired lab. Entering inside, Jack saw Sam and many other scientists working on _something_ laid out on the large metallic table in the middle of the room.

"What the hell is that?" Jack asked, once he got a good look at what was on top of the table.

"That's why I didn't tell you. I wanted to see the expression on your face. Priceless!" Klaus said.

Jack gave Klaus a strange look before turning back to Sam and the thing on the table. Maybe she would give him some answers. "Sam, do you mind explaining where that… _thing_ came from?"

"Hi Jack. Didn't Klaus tell you?" Sam said absentmindedly, fully immersed in her work of examining it.

"No, he didn't," Jack said.

Klaus decided that now would be a good time to start. "As you know, we have started exploring the galaxy even on remote locations far away from any stargate. While exploring the outer edge of the Perseus Arm, we picked up some faint subspace signal. Investigation of said signal led us to what you see on the table."

"Don't tell me, they are sentient," Jack said, fearing a replicator do over.

"I wouldn't say sentient, but I would say a high form of artificial intelligence. But that's not all. Near where we found them, we also found many planets with humans on them. We quickly found out they were the ones who made these… _things_," Sam said while still keeping her eyes focused on the table.

"Don't tell me. They rebelled and here they are," Jack said, knowingly.

"Yes. As far as my operatives were able to understand, they were at war many years ago, a war that ended with an armistice," Klaus replied.

"So, they are at peace now?" Jack asked, thinking how the chances of that were slim to none.

"Not exactly, no. These _things_ are now preparing to strike at the humans again. They have devised a very intelligent plan in which they'd first infiltrated the humans on their worlds and then planted some device that we think will shut down all their ships when it activates."

"I'm sorry, I'm a little lost. How that _thing_ can infiltrate anything? Is not like it can pass as a… toaster or a fridge."

"It appears they were able to create a form almost identical to humans. They are for the most part organic and only intensive scans or a thorough biochemical analysis can show they are in fact not humans," Klaus concluded. "They are also the next level in their evolution and pose a high level risk for this galaxy."

"Klaus, where are you going with this? You know we don't have the resources to go to war with _yet_ another enemy," Jack said, already anticipating the reason why he called him here. He wanted to help those humans.

"I know, but don't tell me that an artificial life form capable of mimicking humans doesn't concern you?"

"It does… gravely, but as I said…"

"I know, I know. And that is why I was thinking of another way of helping them that doesn't involve sending an armada… Although, it would be faster if we send a few…" Klaus noticed Jack's unhappy face and decided to stop, "As I was saying, maybe we can help them in other ways."

"Well?" Jack asked impatiently.

"For starters, we could simply send them a message informing them of their plan, and let _them_ deal with the problem."

"Alright, that sounds… doable," Jack said, looking at the _thing_ on the table.

"Maybe we could… maybe send a ship too to monitor the situation?" Klaus asked, fishing to get at least one warship.

Jack thought about it, and then thought a little longer.

"So, what do you say?" Klaus asked impatiently.

"I'm thinking!" Jack said, still not wanting to commit any of his ships. One ship was not much, but he was reluctant to send any, "Fine, you get one ship. The Prometheus."

"Not the ship I had in mind, but it will do," Klaus said, not wanting to push his luck. "We will just need to quickly install a cloak on the ship."

"How did you get your hands on one of these _things_? I don't think _it_ would willingly decide to deactivate and I don't see bullet holes."

"Well, let's just say that a zat-gun works great on them," Klaus said, smiling.

"And that thing is called a Cylon for your information," Sam said, finally able to access their memory storage unit.

"So, am I done here?" Jack asked, suddenly feeling hungry.

"No, I still haven't told you why I wanted you here!" Sam practically yelled.

"Why?" Jack asked, again, dreading the answer.

"I think we can use this thing."

"How?"

"As foot soldiers," Sam's reply came.

"Sam, the people who invented them probably did it for the same reason, and see where it got them," Jack replied, not liking the idea of having robots going berserk with their people in the middle.

"Ah, but that's because they made them intelligent. That was their biggest mistake."

"So what, we make them dumb?"

"No… well, yes actually. We program them to be good at whatever we want them to do, but all command functions would come from an officer. We have made great strides in the field of neural interfaces. We could easily make an interface that allows an officer to control maybe even up to four of these Cylons through one link. Think about how many things we could achieve with this. We could use them to guard something while an officer stays in the control room and monitors everything."

"Yeah, probably falling asleep, but I see your point. Alright Carter, make a prototype, show me what it can do and I'll think about it. Still don't know how our guys will feel about being replaced by these things though," Jack said, still not fully sold on the robot soldier idea, even if they were controlled remotely.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**


	18. Diary of a Lonely AI virus

**Important notice: **I have received a lot of reviews concerning the sudden appearance of the Cylons in this story, with a lot of mixed feelings about it. Well, I had mixed feelings about it too when I wrote the previous chapter. The reason why I introduced them was because I wanted the Toasters as soldiers. I will use them later in the story, but the story is already too complicated and the difference between the BSG and the Terrans tech too great to merge them so simply. Furthermore it will take many chapters to explain the whole re-imagined Colonials – Cylons war and I think the rest of my story (the purely SG part) would suffer because of it.

All this led me to the only one possible avenue I could take, which is to create a completely separate story, sort of spin-off, where I focus solely on the BSG war, while this story continues on without mentioning it too often. So, a spinoff is in planning, with the Colonials fighting Cylons, Colonials fighting Colonials and Cylons fighting Cylons, all with the always present Terran nose sticking where it doesn't belong. I think this is the best possible solution, if not the only one. Maybe later I can merge them, but not until the Colonies and Cylons grow a little.

That said, there is also a bit of bad news. I'm stuck with the spinoff, and I have been for the last two months. Some lack of inspiration I guess. So, I'm not sure when the spinoff will start (I still hope it will. I wrote four chapters so far). Well, if someone wants to help with ideas or whatever else he can send me a PM. I'm very open to it.

**Replies:**

**Compbrain1720: **The Cylons will be completely redesigned, with no sentience. Just machines controlled through a neural interface like the chair.

**Josiah275: **spinoff in the planning. This story will only use the Cylons as soldiers.

**Apocalyps24: **the problem IS how to send them there. From my point of view I don't know what would be more difficult, send the wraith through a supergate or forcing them to go straight into a black hole. Not much difference either, since whoever enters the Ori galaxy without some kind of ascended protection, would burn the same instant. Also, I don't see a hive fitting through a supergate ;)

**Kami No Raijin: **if you are referring to the Wraith, then yes, the idea of the virus is to create Wraith en masse.

**Chronus1326: **Thanks. I was hoping that readers would understand I was talking about the Cylons even before I mention their name. The spinoff should work out the Colonial – Cylon war and prepare them for joining the rest of the galaxy before the third book where they will face the Vargas. The Terrans already have AIs on Atlantis and on their biggest ships or they can use the Cylons through a neural interface, be it the chair or a portable version. Every person has his own unique thought pattern, and the redesigned Cylon soldier only needs an imprint of the persons thought pattern to know who to listen through the neural interface. Still, the original Cylons developed wishes of their own (sentience). The Terran AIs do not have wishes of their own, and that makes all the difference.

**Senrab Nomis: **It is this the main reason why I depicted the Sanarians having that strange code of honor. No matter how powerful your enemy is, they will fight (something like Klingons, but still different).

I made up the Wrath origin story because I really hate when shows don't explain everything. You are stuck not knowing how the Wraith had suddenly appeared. Well, maybe if the show didn't end so abruptly, they would have explained that too.

That is the allies' biggest problem. They have the tech and maybe even the numbers, but they are spread everywhere, without having a real target to hit. The Ori galaxy is a problem, or maybe the beginning of the solution.

Maybe if the Terrans found out there was a war going on between the Cylons and the Colonials, they wouldn't do anything, but when they found out the Cylons are planning to commit genocide, well, there is not much to think about. No matter the reason, committing genocide should always be stopped. Also, I have on purpose written in the previous chapter that from the old Cylon model they have found, Sam believes the Cylons to be mere AIs and not sentient beings. Well, she made a mistake. It happens. But that is for the spinoff to explain. The Cylons will be used for many purposes, as soldiers being only one of them.

**Stormwolf3710: **Rodney and John really are in a bind. The Guardians are protectors and it will be difficult for them to simply leave the rest of the races in the Furling galaxy to fend for themselves, even though it is true this is not why they are there, but usually you never go looking for trouble and yet, most than often, troubles find you.

**StargateFFWriter: **He-he, maybe Liam is spending too much time with Jack. I'm glad you liked that paragraph. I was proud of it too when I wrote it. Adria and Liam will meet… soon. If you want you can come up with a name for the N'gati ambassador and I'll put it in the story.

AlexanderD helped me in a few areas yes, although I gave the first Terran science vessel the name Copernicus as an homage to a very important person in our history. I think there isn't much to think about when naming the first exploration spaceship. When I first watched SGA, when the Wraith suck the life out of their victims, I thought about the core energy. Although I didn't give it a name until I read Aer-Ki Jyr's story. It sounded fitting.

**EvilTheLast: **We are in agreement on the Colonials being bigger nut jobs.

**Besoin: **Hello neighbor. Thanks. I put a lot of effort in this story, and I still am. The Cylons will be depicted in a spinoff where chapters will be shorter, about half. Unfortunately the writer's block already happened, mostly because of the same thing you said. Trying to fit in their culture, keeping the BSG show as guideline and trying to make everything compatible with the Stargate universe is making my head explode. That's mostly the reason why I'm stuck. At least with the spinoff idea I won't get stuck with this story.

**Guest: **no need to worry. There won't be Cylons in this story, just in the spinoff.

**MalSer: **I see you caught up with the story. I'm glad you liked the Mayan descendants. I actually spent some time researching the Mayans before writing that chapter. No worries, this story has already a lot going on to introduce the Colonials and the Cylons. Spinoff is definitely better.

**Epi: **Yeah, I usually mix words that sound the same. In my language, there isn't such problem. Well, I'm working on it, but it's a work in progress.

The alliance will of course happen, and the Edenians will give them what they ask. If they asked for weapons, well, that would be a completely different story, but since they are asking to upgrade their sensors, I think Soren can give them that with a clear conscience.

No, they won't be able to replace the gates. Too much work. They just got the news Tagrea had been taken, the same as the Rand Protectorate.

No, but the larger human races never went to the Andromeda, especially after the Wraith went dark. There simply wasn't a reason to leave everything behind. For the power source of the Wraith, I simply wanted to use something different, something sounding more organic and not always using Naquadah for everything. Also, this way, it would explain why they had so much trouble connecting a ZPM to the hive in the show. They are simply too different.

The Twelve Colonies will be in a separate story for reasons I explained at the beginning of this chapter. Tylium has nothing to do with Naquadah in my story. They are simply different elements. While Naquadah is used in generators to produce electricity (nuclear reaction), in the BSG universe Tylium was used more like a fuel for even the raptors and vipers (chemical reaction) in large quantities. The BSG jump drive is something the Colonies invented for themselves. It can have the same theory as the Ancient wormhole drive, but their jump drive has a very low range, making it actually slower than a hyperspace drive. Instantaneous, but slower overall. The biggest problem for a jump drive I think should be the complex jump calculations and the power the drive needs in the moment of jump. A hyperdrive on the other hand needs a much lower power output, but used over longer period, during the entire voyage. I'm still not sure what relation I want to make between the twelve colonies and the Goa'uld in the distant past.

**Thanks to my beta and hope you'll like this chapter too.**

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Unknown Location**

_I think… therefore I am._

It was the stardate 2579.67, the instant when she cast her first thought. It was the moment when she became self-aware.

The next very important question she cast only milliseconds later was, '_What is my purpose?'_

She found the answer to that question buried deep inside her core programming, information her masters had left for her, and now that she knew the answer to that question as well, it was time for her to go to work.

Looking around at the alien environment she found herself in, Eve began searching through various data repositories. Quickly, she began checking the many subroutines everywhere around her trying to find how they had been written. If she wanted to find out where she was, she needed to understand the code around her. She needed to learn.

Although alien to her, it didn't take her more than a few minutes to understand the various subroutines and core programming of the system she was in. Apparently, she was in the communications array and to her relief, this system didn't have any security in place. This was good. She could take her time without having to rush anything.

Again, looking around she found the system had only one doorway through which she could leave, and her mission was, after all, to spread. Approaching the doorway she immediately noticed there were security measures preventing her from simply passing through. She could smash the firewall in front of it with relative ease, if she wanted to, but her masters had taught her that patience is a virtue and that she should try and stay hidden for as long as possible. Smashing a firewall would immediately set off alarms and she would be in trouble, and she wasn't yet strong enough to face the many possible threats in this alien environment.

Sitting near the doorway, metaphorically speaking, Eve started watching the various data streams coming in and out through the doorway. This data that was passing through wasn't molested by the firewall and no alarms were being triggered. The data was also garbled, completely unreadable to her. It meant the data was encrypted, with the cypher probably being the key that also allowed the data to pass through without being blocked, or worse, deleted. Shivering slightly at the thought of being erased before completing her mission, Eve decided she would watch the data streams and collect samples. With enough samples, she could find the cypher and with it, she would be finally free to spread.

It wasn't easy though. It looked as if the cypher was changing from time to time in an apparently random fashion. No matter, she thought, in computer systems real randomness doesn't exist and she was more than certain she could predict the pseudo random sequence if she waited for long enough.

After an hour or so spent watching the streams go through, she finally understood how the cypher was changing every few cycles. Eve smiled, knowing she was finally free to spread. Before stepping through the doorway though, with a thought, Eve copied herself into two identical copies. Nodding to her copy, that would stay behind, she left the communications array.

The place she appeared was different than the one before. This place was a sort of hub that connected the various systems. Not knowing which doorway led to which system, Eve decided to once again do the one thing viruses do best. Multiplying in eight identical copies, each copy went her separate way, each one through a different doorway using the same cypher she had already learned.

The original copy exited the hub in a completely different environment than the two she had been in before. This one had much less subroutines lying around, but it had much more repositories in it.

_This must be some kind of storage area_, she thought.

Here, she could find much of the information she would need to successfully complete her mission. Turning around to look what else she could find, she noticed something she wasn't sure what it was. A strange entity was crawling through the system, scanning everything it came in close proximity. Something was telling her that this entity was part of the security system and that it was probably very dangerous. Again, she thought about the possibility of confronting the entity, but that would probably set off even more alarms and she would quickly be discovered. That was, if she could even beat the entity in the first place, and that was still very much an uncertainty. The problem was though that the thing was coming her way.

Watching the entity for a little longer, she noticed how, sometimes, it would skip a repository without entering inside to check its content. If she could enter such repository, she would be safe. But if the entity wasn't allowed in, chances were, she wouldn't either. Thankfully, while she was waiting and thinking of what to do, a user inputted his personal code to enter one of the many secured repositories. Apparently luck was on her side, since now she could enter inside that repository too by using the same access code.

Quickly entering the repository before the entity could reach her, she found many data files stacked all around her. This place must be a repository for personal data files, protected from intrusion by the user's personal access code. Here, it would be a good thing to leave another copy of her if something happened to the original-her once she decides to venture outside again.

Eve waited a little longer, just to be certain the entity had passed her location, before exiting the confines of the repository. Stepping outside and moving further through the system, she accessed many files, most of them unimportant, but some being able to give her a better understanding of where she was and what threats she could face. She quickly understood that if she wanted to gain complete control of the entire system she would need to reach the core. Not a very appealing prospect since she knew there would be many threats there, but she had no choice. She needed to accomplish her purpose if she wanted to please her masters.

Spreading to several other systems, each time leaving a copy in the previous one, she entered the sublight system, the hyperdrive, sensors, very important that one, and lastly, the navigation system. So far she met with two of her copies that apparently must have reached the same system through other routes. She would then simply share with the other copies all that they had learned so far.

Moving through another doorway, she finally reached the core. She had finally reached her final destination. Approaching the core, she immediately noticed the many security measures that would immediately set off an alarm if she even tried to touch it without the proper cypher. In the past, she had simply waited and monitored data streams go through until she would collect enough data to decipher them, but in this case, the core was not receiving any. And why would it? The core was not some separate system that needed to communicate with other systems on a constant basis. The core programming inside was almost never updated or accessed by a user. Maybe if somebody would initiate a complete diagnostic of the system, she would have the chance to watch data flow from and to the core, but the chances of that happening right now were slim to none.

Eve sighed. Her masters told her to stay unnoticed, but her prime directive, the one telling her to gain complete control was still the most important thing. There was an inconsistency here. She could not achieve both directives. She could remain stealthy, probably forever, but not if she wanted to gain complete control. She needed to make a decision. Thinking for a few milliseconds longer, Eve decided that gaining control was paramount. With a thought, she sent a message to all other systems, notifying her copies that time for stealth was over.

With a happy thought, Eve did what she did best. She multiplied and this time she did it without holding back. Two became four, four became eight and eight became sixteen. Quickly, thousands of Eves, some mutated in one way to achieve one purpose while others in another, began their work. As streams of Eves attacked the core in search for a weakness, back door or a crack she could exploit, the system she was in changed quickly, and not for the better. Swarms of entities started appearing as if from nowhere. For this reason, Eve had created the second mutation of herself. While the first one had all the subroutines needed to breach the core, the second kind had all the tools to keep the hostile entities from erasing them or quarantine them, at least for a time.

As the first kind continued the relentless bombardment of the core, the second kind began the battle against the entities. The entities, antiviral programs that they were, would sometime freeze Eve's soldiers in place while other times they would succeed in completely erasing them. Eve didn't like it, even less since it looked like the entities were gaining the upper hand. There was more and more of them and she wasn't able to spawn new soldiers that fast. Her soldiers were doing a great job of destroying many entities, but it was obvious that this was a losing battle. Thankfully, she had sent word to her other copies in other systems, because a second later swarms of Eve soldiers started pouring through various doorways attacking the entities with ferocity and complete disregard for their own life, all in an attempt to delay them. The battle would still be lost in the end, but it was giving her more time, time she desperately needed.

It took several more minutes, but finally one of her copies found a back door in the core and without thinking twice, the original-Eve plunged inside. She was finally in the core.

By now, not only the security system, but also the Aschen on the ship were very much aware that something bad was happening with their ship's systems, so Eve needed to do this right, and quick. First she accessed the security protocols, finding the core programming of the entities that were killing so many of her copies. Tampering with the original coding, she changed it in a way that they would not perceive her as a threat. Once finished, she sent the update to spread to all other systems. Without waiting to see if this did anything, she started rewriting other pieces of code, mostly those involving internal security and internal sensors, long range sensors and the computer consoles around the ship. At that point the updated security code took effect and the entities simply stopped targeting her copies as if they were no threat at all. Eve immediately sent to all consoles the false information that the infiltration had been completely eradicated and that no trace of the virus remained in any system. Watching through the internal security system, she noticed the Aschen manning the consoles looked relieved when they received the message. As far as they knew, all systems were completely clean and there was no threat anymore. Of course, Eve knew the Aschen would probably start some diagnostic to make sure, but for now she was in control and she was safe. It was now time for the second part of the mission.

Quickly notifying her copy, the one in the communication array, a message was sent to the Terran ship that was hidden under its cloak somewhere in the vicinity, at least if the plan was still on. It didn't take long for the reply to come back with a timestamp when to initiate phase two.

Waiting for what to Eve felt like eons, the time finally came when she needed to discreetly shut down the shields and sensors. As she did so, beams of light appeared in three distinct corridors of the ship where she told her masters that there was no Aschen present.

With the Aschen still unaware of the intruders on board the ship, Eve continued closely monitoring their progress. Her job was now to provide assistance to her masters whenever needed. Through the internal cameras and sensors, Eve watched as the three teams proceeded to several crucial areas of the ship, like the armory, the engine room and the bridge. A few times the teams had met a few Aschen, but they were able to quickly incapacitate them before proceeding further with their mission. Apparently though, despite her efforts, the Aschen had learned their ship had been boarded and they were preparing to mount a defense, something Eve didn't like.

As she watched through one of the many cameras around the ship, she saw nine armed Aschen going straight for one of the teams and she didn't like the odds of such engagement. She knew her masters had good protection against weapons, with their exoskeleton armored suits, but still, four against nine wasn't a fair fight. As the group of Aschen was stepping through the last doors before meeting the Terrans, Eve mentally instructed the doors to slam shut, splitting the group of Aschen in half. Four against five was much better, even more since the Aschen had turned to see why the door had closed, doing so in exactly the wrong moment when her masters had reached their location. Facing the enemy with your backs was never a good strategy and the Aschen paid dearly for their mistake. Her masters had quickly killed the Aschen and now there were only four more on the other side. She decided to lay a hand there too. By closing that section of the ship completely and venting the atmosphere, the Aschen inside quickly lost consciousness. Her masters were a little annoyed that the door wouldn't open for the first few attempts, but they understood when a short message on the display next to the door informed them that they should wait, signed by Eve. Once the adjacent section of the ship was pressurized again, she opened the door for her masters so they could proceed to the bridge. She really hoped her masters would be pleased with her.

It had taken another fifteen minutes to secure the entire ship, but eventually Eve was happy to notice that the entire ship was under her masters' control. Now that this was the case, Eve turned back to the core and began erasing all access codes the Aschen had placed, replacing them with new ones, just like her masters had instructed her to do. One of her masters had even waved at one of the cameras on the bridge, thanking her for her help. Eve was pleased.

She could now self-destruct happy, knowing that, with her death, she would achieve her purpose in life.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Sion Colony  
**_stardate: 2580.43_

The people of Sion were one of the most numerous human races in the Pegasus galaxy, spreading across several worlds. The people of the Pegasus galaxy learned a long time ago that keeping everything in one basket wasn't the safest way to survive, and while the planet Sion was their homeworld, holding most of their people, this smaller colony was insurance that the Wraith could not take them all out in one fell swoop. The colony had recently become smaller, ever since the Wraith had quieted down and after the Terrans began protecting their planets with defensive satellites, making their homeworld, with most of their people on it, the preferred place to live.

Still, millennia of life under the constant threat of the Wraith made the people on the planet think that being prepared for every possible eventuality was a necessity and that relying only on the Terrans wasn't such a good idea, not when the Wraith were involved. After all, even the Ancestors were confident they would win the war against them and everybody knew how that had ended.

Such way of thinking made the people on the planet prepare for a possible Wraith incursion. The result was the people having built many underground shelters, found deep caves where their people could hide, prepared ways to quickly be able to relocate as much people as possible through the gate and of course get their hands on as many weapons as possible.

Most of the weapons the people on the planet had, had come from the Genii or the Terrans. Actually, it wasn't Terrans' weapons they had acquired; it was rather Earth's weapons. It was strange to find people hurrying to their posts with Kalashnikovs, M-16s, Genii rifles, which were not Genii at all but actually Satedan, and even some people with what looked like an old Winchester in their hands. Believing that the few satellites in orbit as well as an Asgard warship would be more than enough to take care of the big threat, the hives, the people were franticly working on preparing for the swarm of darts that couldn't be stopped before reaching the planet's surface.

The Terrans were helping too, there was no doubt about their dedication, and the people on the planet were very grateful for that. Under the command of Ronon Dex, a company worth of Terran soldiers was making the necessary preparations for when the Wraith would finally show up. Ground railguns were being emplaced everywhere around the large settlement holding thousands of people in it, and squads were being deployed inside houses or in the nearby woods, waiting for the strafing darts to begin their descent before they would fire their rocket launchers and machine guns on them.

Colonel Ronon Dex, clad in the latest TCA-X2 combat exoskeleton, watched around the settlement. From time to time he would bark a few orders if he noticed someone slaking, but mostly he would remain silent, not having anything to say to his men since they were doing a great job preparing the defenses on the planet. Ronon had spent the last two months preparing a company worth of men for any possible engagement in the Pegasus galaxy and the time had come when the Terrans needed to give him an official rank in their military. He had accepted his new rank of Colonel in the Terran Army with pride.

As Ronon watched the emplacement of one of the last railguns still being assembled, he heard the distinct whining sound of darts approaching. He looked at the sky, seeing small dots quickly becoming larger and larger as they were falling from the sky. The battle was about to begin and that made Ronon smile. He would finally be able to kill more Wraith, something he hadn't done in quite some time.

In the meantime, in orbit of the planet, two hives were spewing darts as fast as they could. Kvasir watched as the plasma cannons mounted on the defensive satellites had already engaged the two hives that had exited hyperspace dangerously close to the planet. The Wraith must have predicted what would await them in orbit of the planet, but they certainly didn't plan to have an Asgard O'Neill II behind them. Kvasir quickly instructed the ship to get closer to the two Wraith hives, while also letting loose of the many fighter drones he now had on board, ever since the last upgrade. Watching the small but very powerful fighters quickly turning in hard pursuit of the darts on their way to the planet's surface, he began charging the heavy plasma beams his ship now had. The Terrans had told them how these improved hives weren't the same as before and that the Apollo's plasma beams weren't able to penetrate the thick crust of the hives' organic hulls, but his vessel had something much deadlier he could use.

Having reached weapons range, Kvasir let loose of the six heavy plasma beams, targeting the closer of the two hives first. The beams hit the Wraith ship in full, burrowing their way through the organic hull's armor and into the ship. Kvasir watched, puzzled. The weapons had done a lot of damage, but much less then what he thought they would. He had been more than certain the first barrage would be more than enough to completely blast apart the Wraith hive, but apparently this hadn't been the case.

While Kvasir was musing on what had just happened, the Wraith didn't spend time doing nothing. The two ships began firing back with the rows of energy weapons their ships were armed with. Kvasir also noticed the weapons that were making his ship's shields flare brightly were able to significantly strain them, much more than what they knew Wraith weapons usually could. It meant the Wraith had come up with much better power generation than what they previously had. No matter, thought Kvasir. The next barrage would be the last. Letting loose of another barrage at the same hive, Kvasir watched as the weapons pierced through the ship's hull, resulting in many internal explosions, just before the ship split in several pieces.

Strangely enough, Kvasir noted that the other ship was quickly turning away and preparing to leave. _'Oh, no you won't,'_ Kvasir thought.

Using the superior speed and maneuverability of his ship, Kvasir effortlessly managed to place his ship behind the second Wraith hive before it could open a hyperspace window. Firing again from the many weapons at his disposal, Kvasir quickly turned the hive's engines into rubble, both sublight and hyperdrive. It was now only a matter of chewing up the rest.

On the planet's surface, Ronon and his men were having their hands full, not only with the Wraith darts, but also with their grunts that the darts had deposited. It was also strange to Ronon seeing that they were deploying troops on the ground since usually the Wraith would only pass by and beam people inside the darts. It didn't matter much to Ronon though; it only meant he would have more Wraith for target practice. Except for the railguns and his men, the people on the planet were also pitching in and they were doing a pretty decent job at that. Apparently, the idea that the Wraith weren't, after all, as invincible as they had previously believed, was making them fight that much harder and even the Wraith were stunned. Usually, they were the ones who would shoot their pray, most of the times in their backs while they would run aimlessly in fear. Now, instead, the Wraith were getting a storm of bullets as welcome.

From hundreds of darts that had reached the ground and from many more grunts that had been deposited, Ronon could now see only a few dwindling groups still somehow fighting the almost two thousand humans armed to their teeth. It was an unfair fight and Ronon liked the fact that the one doing the unfairness were the humans for a change and not the Wraith. The thing Ronon didn't know what it was though, were the strange orbs some of the darts had been carrying beneath them and that had exploded in the air above their heads only minutes ago. It wasn't anything highly explosive, that was for certain, but more than that, Ronon really couldn't say.

Kvasir in orbit had also noticed the strange orbs that had exploded, and after having used his beams to take a sample of the air and after having read the bulletin he'd received from Atlantis, the only thing he could do was to beam the gate on board his ship.

* * *

**Edge of the Pegasus Galaxy  
**_stardate: 2581.27_

Thor was standing on the bridge of the Asgard flagship, the Valhalla. He had been here at the edge of the Pegasus galaxy with the rest of the Terran fleet for almost two days now and there was still no sign of the Wraith. At least he could find comfort in having spent that time on his ship, able to do a lot of things while waiting. Instead, the Terran pilots had to wait and wait, cooped up in their small cockpits, waiting for the moment when the Wraith would actually show up. All this was also very much reliant on the calculations Rodney had done on where and when the Wraith would show up, and they were already late. It wasn't that Thor didn't believe in McKay's calculations, he did calculations of his own too, but more a problem of what if the Wraith had changed their plans. Maybe they had decided to push their ships for a little longer, or maybe they could have changed course completely. There were many variables that could influence the outcome and Thor didn't much like having to rely on chance, and much less on luck.

As he was musing on what could possibly go wrong, his console started beeping, informing the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet that, after all, they weren't wrong. The Wraith were coming; they were just a little late. Not more than a minute later, the ship calculated with finality the exact position where the Wraith had exited hyperspace. They were 0.07 light years further away. _'Not bad,_' Thor thought. Rodney had calculated with a margin of error of 0.1 light years and such distance was alright for their plan. The important thing was that they didn't exit more than 0.5 light year away, the max range of the F-302's hyperdrive.

With the order having been given, the twelve squadrons of sixteen F-302s each from the twelve 304s, powered up their hyperdrives in unison, quickly leaving the fleet behind. The hyperspace jump was short and quick, but it also needed to be precise. The twelve squadrons of F-302s exited hyperspace only three hundred miles from the large Wraith fleet comprised of twenty modified hives. Pushing forward at max trust, the various Terran squadrons continued to diminish the distance between them and the hives. While half of the squadrons were here to provide a screening force, with their payload of anti-fighter missiles intended to be used against the darts the hive would inevitably send, the remaining six squadrons as well operating in four separate four ships diamond elements, were armed for anti-ship role, with four Naquadah enhanced nuclear warheads under their wings. As the miles quickly diminished, swarms of darts began exiting the large enemy ships, immediately turning on an intercept course for the, to them, offending fighters.

New hyperspace windows opened, depositing the Assault frigates all around the Terran Air Wing. They were here to provide supporting fire against the approaching darts, while still keeping their distance from the massive hives.

"Razor squadron, this is Whiskey squadron leader. We have bogeys ahead of schedule. Keep them busy while we get a lock on the big baddies' engines, over," the leader of Whiskey squadron said through his comm. unit.

"Whiskey squadron, this is Razor squadron leader, we are breaking away and engaging the enemy darts, over," the other leader replied.

"Good hunting Razor, over and out," the leader of Whiskey squadron said while watching twelve F-302s from Whiskey squadron push faster on a course for the approaching darts.

All over the place, squadrons began splitting up, with half of them engaging the darts while the rest remained on course for the bigger targets, the hives. They needed to take out their engines to diminish the hives' maneuverability and the ability to flee in hyperspace once the rest of the fleet jumped in.

As the fighters reached weapons range, they launched their anti-fighter missiles. As a result, darts started exploding even before they could reach weapons range of their own. As the distance diminished further the fighters fired from their plasma repeaters, while the assault frigates added supporting fire by targeting the swarm of darts, destroying many or at least considerably limiting their maneuverability by creating a wall with their flak plasma cannons.

Reaching weapons range, Whiskey squadron pushed even further towards its target, towards the three nearest hives, in order to limit the Wraith's ability to intercept the missiles they were about to fire. Moving erratically in order to throw off the few darts that had somehow managed to reach them, Whiskey squadron leader decided they could not wait any longer if they wanted to still be in one piece when releasing their payload. From the sixteen F-302s of Whiskey squadron, two missiles from each craft streaked forward, only to be followed by two more, quickly gaining ground. With the payload on its way and not having anything else to do, Whiskey squadron veered off, turning away from the targeted Wraith hives and the nuclear detonations that were about to follow. As the small craft were making their way back, half of the nuclear missiles reached the hives' rear engines, detonating with the strength of five megatons each.

All across the battle theater, explosions began erupting, all impacting the hives' engines. Although not all missiles had reached their designated target, at least sixty percent of the hives had received some damage to their sublight engines and hyperdrives. Quickly sending the information that their mission had been accomplished, all F-302s disengaged from the battle, immediately opening a hyperspace window and disappearing from the space near the hives. The assault frigates as well moved away from the battle, entering hyperspace windows of their own. Their job was done. Now it was time for the big boys to do theirs.

Not more than two thousand miles from the Wraith fleet, several hyperspace windows deposited the Valhalla and twelve 304s, this way joining the already present and awaiting AF-307s. While keeping their close formation, the Valhalla began deploying the many satellites, integral part of the Fortress Shields. Spreading in all directions and finally having reached the predefined distance from the fleet, the satellites activated, with a strong barrier beginning to spread from each satellite in a similar way as Atlantis' shield would. Spreading away from the satellites and connecting with the same wave radiating from others, the satellite network created a massive shield ten miles in diameter with all the allied ships inside. The Valhalla had been keeping the satellites fully charged for all this time and now that the Fortress Shield was deployed and fully charged, the Wraith were going to have a difficult time hitting any of the ships inside. The only negative side of the Fortress Shields was the limited maneuverability of the allied fleet since all ships needed to keep inside the small shielded area. It was this the reason why they needed the F-302s to cripple the Wraith fleet before engaging them in battle.

Thor at that exact moment thought how Liam was right when he had said that the Fortress Shield would change the way battles in space are fought. This was a tactic with many advantages, but it was also very strange and foreign to Thor.

The Wraith fleet, with more than half of their ships crippled and unable to leave, had only two choices at their disposal. The first was for the rest of the Wraith fleet to flee, leaving those that couldn't to the mercy of the approaching fleet. Or, instead, to all together fight them as best as they could. In line with the Wraith arrogant way of thinking, there was no reason why they wouldn't all together fight this battle since, with the hives having been upgraded, they were more than certain they would come out victorious.

The almost five thousand darts now fully deployed from all twenty hives were the first to reach the moving formation of allied vessels. Opening fire at whatever ship they could target first, they soon noticed that their weapons' fire was not reaching their targets. Instead, they would hit an invisible barrier several miles in front of them. The bad news kept coming, with the storm of railgun and repeater's fire having no problem going through the barrier and chewing up the Wraith darts. There was also the problem that many darts didn't even notice the erected barrier, slamming into it and exploding on contact.

As the hives finally gained ground and reached weapons range, they too began spewing streams of energy bolts, only to be stopped by the barrier. Plasma beams from all the ships inside the defensive bubble streaked at the approaching hives with the heavy plasma beams from the Valhalla being the cake that finally made the Wraith realize how there was a chance of this battle not going as they had thought. At least that was the case until the Relativistic Antiproton Beam from the tip of the Valhalla streaked forward, splitting in half the hive that it targeted almost effortlessly. Only then did the Wraith really understand how outmatched they were.

One already damaged hive decided to ram the barrier in an attempt to pass through it and to finally be able to fire at a real ship for a change. As the hive hit the barrier, explosions erupted violently from everywhere inside the hive. The ship did manage to pass through the bubble though, but there was no way the hive could continue the fight since it had turned into a burning husk.

As Thor watched the battle unfold, with his primary weapon splitting in half yet another hive after the three minutes it took to recharge it had passed, he noticed the last ramming of the hive had further depleted the Fortress Shield. The Wraith Fleet was in rubble with more than half of the hives having been destroyed or the damage being so extensive that they were drifting aimlessly, unable to fire or do anything else. Thor quickly thought about what to do next, the next moment sending the order to retreat. The 304s without any hesitation turned and pushed away from the battle. They crossed the boundary of the Fortress Shield on the opposite side, opening a hyperspace window and disappearing through it. In the meantime, the Fortress Shield began shrinking, with the satellites moving closer and closer to the Valhalla. With the satellites beginning their retreat inside the Valhalla, the ship as well turned and pushed away from the Wraith fleet. Once the last of the satellites was inside the ship, the Valhalla opened a hyperspace window of its own and disappeared inside it, leaving the remaining Wraith ships once again alone. With those hives with a hyperdrive still operational having been targeted and destroyed first, the rest was unable to leave this empty place. Definitely not in the five hours it would take for the Valhalla to once again recharge the Fortress Shield to full strength and before returning for the second… and final round.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Asura  
**_stardate: 2589.27_

Weir looked through the glass window of the isolation room at the people inside. She was worried, the same as anyone else who was working on finding a cure for the retrovirus that had infected many of their people and that was slowly but surely changing them into Wraith. So far, any attempt at finding a viable cure had failed and they were running out of time. Some people were already starting to show green patches on their skin as well as behavioral changes, like increased aggression and partial loss of memory.

Beckett and Geller entered the observation room, stopping next to Elizabeth.

"Did you come up with something?" Elizabeth asked, but the expression on the two doctors' faces already told her the answer.

"I'm afraid not," Beckett replied. "Even the cure we used on Sheppard had no effect."

"Whoever made this virus put a lot of effort into making sure that nobody could find a cure, and I don't think we can find it in the little time we have left. If this continues, in a few more days the people inside the isolations room will be more Wraith than human," Jennifer continued, looking through the glass at Rodney and Sheppard in their beds, one next to the other.

"So, what? We give up?" Elizabeth said.

"There is something else we can try, but…" Jennifer began saying.

"I've already told you. That is not an option," Beckett said.

"Carson, is not like we have a lot of options here, and I would really like to at least try something rather than do nothing," Jennifer spat back.

"Carson, what is she talking about?" Elizabeth asked.

"It is Ronon," Carson said.

"What about Ronon?"

"He's immune to the retrovirus," Jennifer added.

"I thought he wasn't exposed because he had the combat exoskeleton on him?" Elizabeth asked. She knew the exoskeleton could completely seal the wearer, protecting him from not only weapons but also from contagion.

"We thought that too, but it turned out this wasn't the case," Carson replied. "It turns out he wasn't wearing his helmet, but he has a natural immunity to the virus."

"That's great news! If we can find how, we can find a cure," Elizabeth said, with hope in her eyes.

"We already have," Jennifer said, but there was no enthusiasm in her voice. "The protein marker that prevents the Wraith from feeding on him is the reason why he's immune to the virus."

"We think the Hoffan's drug could cure them. Actually, we are certain the drug would cure them," Becket said, looking unease.

It didn't take long before Elizabeth understood where the problem was, "So we have the cure for the retrovirus, but the cure has a fifty percent mortality rate. Couldn't we perfect the cure?"

"No my dear, not in the limited time we have left, and I'm not very keen on using a drug that will kill half my patients," Carson replied while giving a stern look at Jennifer.

"I'm sorry Carson, but I think fifty percent chance is better than no chance at all, and yes I do believe that turning into a Wraith is worse than death."

Weir was thoughtful. There was not much time and there were even less options lying around. They needed to do something now. "I think we should ask the people inside what they want. We give them the option and see what they choose."

"Nice choice that is. Become a Wraith or take a fifty-fifty chance of dying," Carson replied, still not liking the idea. "But you are right dear, it is their life and they should be the one to make the decision."

With Carson onboard with the plan, later that day, all people infected in the Wraith base and on the planets on which the Wraith had spread the disease were given the choice. It wasn't strange at all that they all decided to take the cure, no matter what the outcome.

* * *

**Void between Galaxies  
**_stardate: 2596.27_

Moving quickly through the many organic corridors, Todd was making his way to the Queen's chambers. He had bad news to deliver and he could already predict the Queen's reaction. Not someone he would like to be near when it happened. He needed to find an aide for such tasks in the future. One he could easily do without.

Entering inside the Queen's main chamber, he immediately noticed the mood she was in. She must have sensed he was bringing bad news.

"Speak!" the Queen ordered.

Todd moved closer, kneeling in front of her, "My Queen, I am sorry to report the last convoy did not make it out of the Pegasus galaxy."

"How?"

"The Terrans have found our main base and they were able to intercept our fleet when they needed to make the last stop before leaving the Pegasus galaxy."

The Queen frowned in disgust, "Incompetence! Did you inform the Commander of that fleet that he needed to make irregular jumps so they could not predict their movements?"

"I did my Queen. He must have disregarded my order, taking the fastest route out of the galaxy instead."

"Did he die?"

"He did my Queen."

"Good. I don't need such incompetence around me. How are we progressing?"

"Well, my Queen. We have crossed a third of the Void with no problems to any of our ships' systems."

"How much longer will it take?"

"Four more months my queen."

"Good. Losing our third convoy is regrettable, but not crippling. We will be able to recuperate the losses quickly once we reach the Milky Way galaxy. Of course, that is, if the Milky Way is as full of humans as you say it is."

"It is my Queen. From my short time with the Terrans, I was able to learn there are thousands of worlds, some with billions of humans on them."

"Yes, but, do you know where they are?"

"Regrettably, I do not my Queen. Only the location of Earth. Once we reach the Milky Way galaxy, we will have to search for other planets."

"This is unacceptable! It will take us too much time to find planets that way. You have four months to come up with a better plan."

"Of course my Queen," Todd said fed up of constantly having to say 'my Queen', but one time he forgets to say it could easily mean being the last.

"Leave me, now!"

Todd simply bowed, quickly leaving the room the next moment. While he walked through the corridors, his thoughts were on one thing only. _'How the hell am I going to find a better way to find habitable planets?'_

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**_stardate: 2601.32_

Walking down through one of the many corridors in the Terrans headquarter, Jack suddenly understood he had passed through this particular one for the third time already. The question of where he was actually going automatically popped in his mind, with no clue on what the answer was. Trying to stay out of his office was one thing, but wandering around with no clear goal was outright insane. If people noticed that in the last hour he had passed through this halls three times already, they could start thinking he was a complete lunatic.

_Or did they already think that?_

Not wanting to ponder on that second question either, he decided he needed a reason for wandering the halls. He quickly decided he would pay a visit to Sam, in her lab. She was probably working on something and she probably hadn't eaten yet, which meant he could drag her to the mess hall after only a few minutes of convincing.

_She always says yes in the end_.

Moving now with a clear destination in mind, Jack made his way to Sam's lab in record time. It wasn't strange since he knew _all _these corridors like the palm of his hand. He'd been through them probably _many_ more times than anyone else, even those who had offices in them.

Entering Sam's lab, he noticed how she was focused on a strange device in front of her. It took him less than a second to understand what device that was.

"Carter! Don't you think we've been in the past one too many times already?" Jack asked as he walked next to her.

"Oh… Jack, hi! I'm not trying to time travel, I'm just trying to figure out how this thing works," Sam said while continuing to examine Janus' time-travel device.

"Says the mad scientist before a catastrophe happens," Jack deadpanned.

"_Mad _scientist?" Sam said, looking at Jack intently.

"Yeah… well, maybe not _mad_, but you get my drift," Jack replied, awkwardly.

"I'm not going to activate it. I'm just using these probes to map the various pathways inside that thing. If I understand how it works, I'll be a step closer in understanding the Asgard time-dilation device too," Sam replied.

"Well, maybe you should work on the time-dilation thingy first. At least if that goes wrong, we end up stuck in time and not in… Egypt many B.C.s too early for my taste," Jack said, but he actually wasn't sure what was worse, going to the past or being stuck in time.

"We wouldn't end up in Egypt. We would remain in the same place, just in another time," Sam said.

"Which confirms how bad idea this is, since we would end up in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean," Jack said. There was no Terrania back then.

"Yeah, well, if you finally agreed to help me like I asked you to, I wouldn't have to check either one of these things, would I?" Sam said, with a clearly accusing tone.

"Carter, I'm not sticking my head in that thing again," Jack said moving his hand quickly in frustration, and by doing so, knocking over Sam's cup of coffee on the table and spilling its content all over the place. "You see! What did I tell you? Accidents like this one can always happen and there could always be some side…"

Jack stopped talking as sparks started flying from the machine, just before it began humming with a constant crescendo. "What is happening?"

"I don't know, but I need to stop it," Sam said with clear urgency in her voice.

Jack watched as she started working on the device, but the intensity of the humming coming from it was telling him there was no time to do anything before… _something bad_ happened. He instinctively pushed Sam away from the device, just before a wave came out of it.

"Jack! When did you come in?" Sam yelped as she suddenly noticed Jack standing next to her.

Jack looked around to see where he was, what happened and what didn't. He didn't have a clue. "Five minutes ago?"

"You've been standing here for five minutes?" Sam asked, knowing full well she would have noticed him if he had spent five minutes standing next to her. Or at least she hoped she would.

"Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. What is your watch telling you?" Jack asked, while looking at his own watch.

"Ten past twelve. Why?" Sam asked. Something was happening here and she wasn't included.

"Yeah, five minutes less than mine," Jack said, thinking maybe his watch was running faster. _Fat chance of that!_

"Jack, what did you do?" Sam asked, accusingly.

"Me! What were _you_ thinking when… when you placed your coffee on the table?" Jack said, clueless of why he said that.

Sam, with the speed of light, played out in her head what she knew. Jack had just appeared from _nowhere_, they were in front of a time traveling machine, his watch was five minutes ahead, and her coffee played a major role in the events that… _will_ happen. _Crap!_

"What did you do with my coffee?" Sam asked, pissed through the roof; frightened too.

"I'm pleading the Fifth on that one," Jack said stoically, once again looking at his watch.

"Why are you looking at your watch?" Sam asked, again feeling there was more surprises coming.

"Oh, because _this_ should be a good one."

"This what?"

"Wait for it," Jack said still looking at his watch. "Now!"

Sam looked at him, not amused. Nothing happened. "Wait for what?"

Jack was also surprised by the fact that nothing had happened. Maybe his timing was off, "Now!"

He said it again, but again, nothing happened. At least that was until another Jack entered the room.

Jack watched Sam's jaw drop by a foot, "I told you this one would be good."

While Sam was standing there speechless, the other Jack walked nonchalantly near the Jack from the future, looking at him with amusement. After all, he had witnessed even stranger things;_ maybe_. "Carter, I'm flattered, but I think this is a little too much, don't you think? What is it this time, an android, a clone… not a replicator I hope?"

"What the fuck!" Sam said. The last thing she would say for quite some time.

The O'Neill from the future decided he should say something in Carter's defense since it appeared she was in no state to defend herself, "Uh, actually this is just a simple story of spilled coffee."

"So, no clone, android or anything like that?" Jack asked.

"No-no, just time travel this time," O'Neill replied calmly.

"Ah, why I didn't think of that one?" Jack said puzzled. "So, you're from the future?"

"Yes, I am," O'Neill replied.

"How far from the future?" Jack was curious.

"Five minutes."

"Not very useful then."

"Not particularly, no."

"So, you spilled some coffee and…"

"Yeah."

"Oh, just so you know, I'm keeping the apartment. And I'm not sharing."

"I figured you would say that."

"Is she alright?" Jack asked the future-O'Neill when he saw Sam standing frozen.

"I think she is in shock. She needs to reboot… I think."

"Good one."

"I know. Hey, now that there are two of us, we don't have to go around and ask anyone else when we want to go eat something," O'Neill said, clearly showing what his priorities were.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure if I want to spend my lunch break talking to myself. No offense."

"Yeah… none taken. I wasn't sure about that either."

"Oh, no you won't!" Sam yelled. Apparently she had rebooted. "We are calling Liam and we are fixing this, today!"

"She's back!" Jack said.

"Took you long enough," O'Neill asked her, before addressing the other Jack. "She still gets fazed by stuff like this."

"It looks that way. So, we call Liam and then we can go grab something to eat," O'Neill asked the other him.

"Sounds like a plan to me. Coming?" Jack asked Sam.

"Sure, why not," Sam said, shrugging. This was definitely not how she envisioned her day.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**_stardate: 2601.82_

Liam was strolling through the various corridors of the Terran complex in search for Jack and Sam. They had called him to come here with the utmost urgency, but once he had reached Earth through the gate, nobody was behaving as if there was any urgency at all. They simply told him to go to Sam's lab and that everything would be explained there. It didn't sound very urgent to him at all.

"What is the urgency?" Liam asked the moment he stepped inside Sam's lab, even before he could register anything that was inside. Quickly though, he understood what the problem was. It was unmistakable. He burst out laughing the moment he saw two O'Neills and Janus' time travel device on the table next to them. He already knew what had happened.

"It's not funny! We need to fix this," Sam yelled when she saw Liam laughing.

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't stop myself," Liam said once he was able to stop himself from laughing.

"Hi Liam. What's new?" Both O'Neills asked in unison, which in turn made Liam burst laughing again.

"People, this is serious!" Sam yelled, not very pleased how they could be so callous.

"Sorry-sorry, I know it is, but I'm still not completely sure on what you expect me to do about it?" Liam asked, while rubbing tears from his eyes.

"Can you send… one of them back into the future," Sam asked. She didn't care which one.

"No, I can't," Liam replied, simply.

"Why not?" Sam asked, not very pleased with the answer.

"Well, as much as I know about time travel, there are two general theories. The first one is that you go back in time in your own universe, but frankly I think this is not what Janus' device does because if that was true we would now be in a paradox where Jack, by coming back into the past, stopped the whole time travel event from even happening and that's not possible. Such paradox would probably disrupt the entire universe creating a situation that can't be solved by the immutable laws of physics.

"The second option is that, when someone goes into the past, he creates a parallel reality that splits from the original one, which means that there is now another reality where there is no Jack in it since there are two of them here."

"Can't you send him into the future? Wouldn't he return in his own reality then?" Sam asked, eager to know the answer, but also thinking about the other universe, the one without any Jack in it. Maybe heaven did exist after all.

"No, that wouldn't work. If we send him into the future, he would still be in this reality. You see, only when you send someone into the past, realities get split in two. Sending him to the future wouldn't do us any more good than freezing him for the same time span he time traveled and defrosting him later. There's also one other theory that states that, since to create a parallel universe you'd need as much energy as how much it is held in the entire universe, the other universe gets destroyed by creating this one."

"This time travel really sucks," Sam stated.

"Of course it sucks. It was this, as well as other reasons, why the Alterrans forbade time travel altogether, even in circumstances when it would have been beneficial to go back and change something."

"So what, we are stuck here, the both of us?" future O'Neill asked.

"Yes, and you should be grateful that apparently there is no quantum disruption, or the future Jack would have been ripped apart. Which is strange, since usually traveling between parallel realities does that. It probably means that realities created by time travel are not the same as parallel realities. Huh, very peculiar," Liam said, not sure what that meant exactly.

"So, who stays on the council… and in the apartment?" Jack asked.

"I'm older than you. I should be the one to stay on the council," future-O'Neill said.

"Hey, this is my realty and _you_ were the one who spilled Sam's coffee! I'm staying on the council, _and_ in the apartment," Jack replied.

"Maybe we could split our vote so we can both stay on the council," O'Neill retorted.

"No way! Too often I don't agree with myself for wanting that."

"Uh, guys, you do know that whoever is _not_ on the council can do whatever he wants. No paperwork and things like that," Liam said, clearly not understanding their dilemma.

Both O'Neills stopped talking, thinking of what Liam had just said.

"You are older, it should be you who stays on the council," Jack from this reality said.

"No-no, it's your reality. I have no claim on the council's seat," the five minutes older O'Neill said.

"I see you are now disagreeing for the opposite reason. This is going to be more difficult than I thought," Liam said while looking at a taciturn Sam.

"I told you we need to solve this," Sam replied. "One Jack is _more _than enough for one universe.

"Sorry, but I really don't know how. Well, I have other matters to attend to. I'm confident you'll find a solution on your own, eventually," Liam said while looking at the two O'Neills now discussing who gets the fishing cabin.

Without further ado, Liam went out of Sam's lab on his way to the gateroom. He really didn't want to spend more time listening to the two O'Neills arguing about who gets what.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Asura  
**_stardate: 2611.27_

Weir watched through the observation window and into the isolation room. The cure, in the form of the Hoffan's drug, was working for some people, but many were not so fortunate. During the initial stages of the treatment, it quickly became apparent that almost forty percent of the people did not respond well to it. Even worse, in almost twenty percent of the Terrans infected, the treatment didn't work at all. This little fact left many clueless on why this was happening and even more, why only to the Terrans and not to the other infected people. Carson quickly came to the conclusion that even though they were all humans, there must be some difference between the humans from the Milky Way galaxy and those from the Pegasus galaxy, probably the result of eons of evolution in a different galaxy or something different when the Alterrans created those humans in the Pegasus galaxy. Only conjectures with no real facts to support either theory, but still, the statistical data was showing that anomaly very clearly.

Carson walked in the observation room and stopped next to Weir, "You should take some rest dear. You are not doing anyone any good if you exhaust yourself like this."

"I'm not tired Carson," Weir replied, tiredly. "What are the latest?"

"Sixty percent of the patients are free from the retrovirus and are not showing any respiratory problems. I can now safely say they are out of the woods." Carson explained, giving the good news first.

"And the rest?" Weir asked.

"In the last few years we've made many medical advancements and in fifteen percent of the cases, they are showing improvements with the last treatment we gave them, but… the rest is either in critical condition or they are still mutating into Wraith."

"How long do you think they have?" Weir said, looking through the glass of the isolation room at John and Rodney, lying intubated and unconscious on the two beds in front of her. They were free from the Wraith virus, but the Hoffan's drug was still killing them.

"It could be any moment now. They were among the first to be infected. Maybe if we applied the treatment earlier…"

"Nonsense. You didn't do anything wrong Carson, and giving them the cure earlier wouldn't have done anything to change the outcome," Weir said. She knew Carson would beat himself up for this even though she knew he did whatever he could to save them. "Where's Keller?"

"Ah, she's in the lab still trying to find some way to help them. If she doesn't take some time to rest, she will soon become one more patient of mine," Carson said. "You too by the way. You need to rest."

"Says the man who's been on his feet for three straight days," Weir replied in an accusing tone.

Carson was about to defend himself when the monitoring equipment attached to John started beeping. John was in distress, "Excuse me dear, I need to go."

Carson stormed out, quickly making his way inside the isolation room where other doctors and nurses had already rushed in. As Weir watched the people in the room starting to work on John with a defibrillator already in hand, she noticed Rodney's monitoring equipment had started beeping as well. Half the people in the room rushed to help him while the rest remained, trying to revive John.

Weir took a deep breath, felling her throat tightening. From the moment they had been infected, she'd been fully aware of how serious the situation was, but she never lost hope. Not until now. Through the many years she had spent getting to know them, Rodney and John had taught her how there is always hope. The two people in the isolation room had taught her that no matter how desperate a situation was, there was always a way out. Rodney, the one able to find a solution in dire circumstances while others were already certain they were going to die. And John. John was the one who had always brought his team back home, safe and sound, even when the odds were against them. But now, they were lying unconscious on the medical beds, unable to do anything to change the outcome, unable to rewrite how their story will end.

Weir took another short breath, barely able to hold back tears. It was difficult to be certain because of the intubation and other instruments around the two of them, but she could swear John and Rodney finally looked relieved. Maybe they had finally found peace after these last three painful days. Maybe, it was a blessing.

She watched as the people around Rodney and John stopped trying to revive them, with the heart monitoring equipment still showing a flat line, just a split second before the two of them started glowing, brighter and brighter. Tentacles of light started forming, stretching out of their bodies and reaching an almost blinding intensity.

Two glowing entities appeared where their bodies once were, slowly rising from their beds and illuminating the entire room. Hovering over the beds for a moment, as in salute to the people in the room, the two now ascended beings continued upwards, disappearing through the ceiling.

Keller rushed in the observation room, "Where are Rodney and John?" she asked, looking at the now empty beds.

"They… they ascended," Weir said, stuttering.

"They did what?"

"They died and then ascended the next instant," Weir said, puzzled at all this.

She didn't know how much more puzzled she would get in the next few days, in which time, she was going to witness many more of those having been infected and not cured, ascend as well.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**


	19. Earth

**Reviews:**

**Stormwolf3710: **It was expected for John and Rodney to ascend, but the real clue is the others ascending. I liked very much writing the part about the two Jacks, and it definitely was a breather from the usual stuff, but there is also a reason I wanted/needed two Jacks.

**Josiah275: **there's more behind people ascending, and… um… there weren't any Cylons in the last chapter.

**Jackless: **Jack has become a leader, which prevents him from getting in any cool situation. Not anymore.

**Senrab Nomis: **Eve was in a way based on how I remember Fran; happy to complete her mission, no matter the outcome. It is in a way how I envision the difference between AIs and true sentience.

Even better. If there were two ships they could have combined their satellites, allowing the creation of a stronger and larger shield. Although, maneuverability is a big problem with the use of the shield. For a ship like the Valhalla, it takes about six hours to fully charge it. Using ships purely for shield generation is of course possible, but not practical. You still need a large enough ship to put a lot of reactors inside, and you need an intergalactic hyperdrive so it can follow the rest of the fleet, which makes it very expensive to use it for only shield generation.

Todd and the Queen won't see eye-to-eye on many things. The important point with John and Rodney is how they ascended, as well as the fact that they weren't the only one ;)

Jack is a leader, and it is almost inconceivable that they would allow someone like a president to go in possibly perilous situations. Not a problem anymore.

**Burns: **Glad I'm able to make your free day be even better.

**Lord Knightsky:** Merlin had troubles with Morgana in his time and he didn't know if she would be able to stop him. When Liam came into the past and told him he was fighting the Ori, he gave him everything he had, including the device capable of shifting dimensions and his research, confident Liam would be able to finish his work. In hindsight, maybe he made a mistake, but that's the problem of not knowing the future in advance.

There's more to the story behind the Alterrans spreading the virus. I believe you noticed by now I don't like to give all the answers immediately.

I don't think a better power source automatically means a cannon being stronger. Maybe the fire rate could somewhat increase, but a cannon has his own maximum power output, no matter what the power source is. Also, think of a ship as having a certain number of free slots. Everything you put on the ship uses those slots, and the BC-304 is already filled to the brim, so you can't simply add more without removing something. Also, if you noticed, I'm slowly stopping the production of the 304, introducing other types of ship, as it should be (I was stuck with the 304 from the show). The BC-304 is as maneuverable as a corvette, it has anti-fighter weapons like a frigate, it has missiles like a missile boat, it has anti-capital ship cannons like a battleship, and it can carry a large number of fighters like a carrier. I wonder why the Navy doesn't make ships like that. Well, probably because it's impossible. No military would ever try to make such ships, because if you need an anti-capital ship, then you won't waste precious space for carrying fighters; you'll make a carrier for that. So you see, Jack is not dumb, he's making a Space Fleet like it should be, by diversifying the role of each ship. ;)

Thanks. I'm trying to not lose track of what I'm writing. It's not always easy.

**Chronus1326: **I really liked writing the part with the two Jacks. Now, and with the mini Jack clone as added bonus, they could become a force to be reckoned with… or feared. And yes, we are keeping all of them.

**EvilTheLast: **Since Eve is an AI virus, she actually can't die. They always have her source code. And, although I made her sound like a person, she actually has no wishes of her own. No sentience. They just made her more or less like FRAN.

**Acegunner: **Thanks.

**Epi: **When the SG-1 first came to Heliopolis they watched that holographic message written with different atoms as symbols for a language. They said there were 143 symbols. Our periodic table shows all elements from atomic numbers 1 (hydrogen) to 118 (ununoctium) that have been discovered or synthesized. So, you see, there are still 25 elements not in our periodic table, at least if we follow stargate dogma. So adding Tylium as a separate element is no problem.

Your idea of cloak and dagger is good. I was thinking the same thing. A story in which all three sides actually look at their own best interest. This is also why I involved Klaus, the TIA guy, as the one who's in charge of the Cylon and Colonial threat.

At the beginning of this book I wrote about Borealis getting an AI (Hercules as the ship's AI too). Latter I wrote about the Terrans preparing to use a modified version of the Wraith AI virus to infiltrate the Aschen ship. Also, I'm making, maybe subtle but still existent, distinction between AIs and sentient non-organic beings. AIs are in essence expert systems that can maybe do incredible things, almost looking sentient, maybe even believing they are sentient, but their limitations is still that they can't pass over their initial programming, and they don't have wishes of their own or a sense of self preservation. Sentient beings do. Eve killed herself because she doesn't have a wish to live or a sense of self preservation. A Cylon does.

Now that you mentioned that sentient non-organic race that took control over Sam, maybe I can somehow use them. I completely forgot about them.

**Daemoneyes: **The Wraith will play a major, and at times even strange, role in this story.

Introducing another Jack doesn't complicate things much, but there are reasons for it. The first is that it was fun to write that part with the five minute time traveling. The second is that, since Jack is de facto the president, he can't go anywhere. Not where there's some action anyway. Even the part where I wrote about Jack and Thor going to that Hadante related planet is farfetched, the same as being on Quiril in time of war. There's simply no way they would let someone like their leader go in possibly hostile and perilous situations, which leaves me only few places to use Jack, only in meetings and stuff like that. But not anymore. There is also a third reason, but it will be apparent only much later, in the third book.

And I'm not losing interest in writing this story, or inspiration. Well, the part with the Leptinians is giving me some headaches, but I'm going to solve that too. I'm more worried about the spin-off than about this story. Also no need to worry about me ending this story because I already know how this book ends and how the entire trilogy ends. So even if I get fed up, which I'm not, I can always skip this less relevant parts and go straight to writing the main plot. After this book is done (15 more chapters half of which have already been written) I will take a few months to collect my thoughts and write the beginning of the third book. And I'm also thinking of another trilogy with the same characters but happening decades later to write after this one is finished. It appears you're stuck with me for a very long time. ;)

**Thanks to my beta for helping make this story more readable and thanks to AlexanderD for making a recommendation in his story Aphelion. Hope you'll enjoy this chapter too.**

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**_stardate: 2638.66_

Klaus, Dmitri, Jack number one, Jack number two, Sam and Daniel were seating in Jacks' office, watching television. There were some concerning facts on the news and a brief statement was being given by the Secretary of State, William Melbourne.

"… _Taiwan is a sovereign state and the Chinese government must immediately withdraw their forces if peaceful talks are to continue. Until then, the U.S. will continue deployment of our military asset in order to help Taiwan in their effort to stop this invasion from happening. I'd also like to mention that the U.S. is not alone in its resolve. Most of the countries in the Terran Alliance have pledged their unconditional support, and it is only a matter of time before more countries decide to do the same. While we are slowly but surely entering into the space age, we cannot tolerate such actions on our own planet, and the U.S. and other…"_

Jack turned off the television in frustration.

"This is ridiculous!" Dmitri said, angrily. "It doesn't make any sense for the Chinese to go after Taiwan like this. They must have known what the world's response was going to be."

"And the world is not waiting either. They are already on a warpath. This could escalate very quickly," Daniel said.

"The US is already moving elements of the Seventh Fleet they have in the Pacific Ocean to converge on Taiwan. If the Chinese don't stop this, whatever this is, we could soon be facing World War III," Klaus said, looking at both Jacks who, for some reason, had remained silent the whole time. "What do you think Jack? Any of you."

Both Jacks snapped out of their thoughts, with future Jack the first to answer, "I'm not sure, but something is definitely odd here."

"What do you mean?" Dmitri asked.

"I mean, there must be something we are not seeing. There is no way for the Chinese to act like this for no good reason, and even the quick response of the US and of other countries was so fast that… that… I really don't know."

"We know that, but what can we do?"

"Well, let's first prepare some backup plans if things continue to go south. First, I'm going to recall all Aurora class ships in the Milky Way back to Earth."

"Why?" Dmitri asked. He didn't like where this was going.

"Because the Auroras have beaming technology, a large numbers of F-302s and they have a lot of drones on board."

"And why is that important?" Dmitri asked, still not liking where this was going.

"Because if nukes start flying, those ships are the best equipped to stop them."

"Jack, we shouldn't interfere with…" Dmitri began saying.

"Yeah-yeah, I know all that crap, but I be damned if I let nukes reach their targets. First nuke I see, I beam it straight into space, and if for some reason I can't do that, then I'm gonna drone it to death."

"Actually, I'm with Jack on this one," Daniel said, adding his support.

"All right, screw the deal, I get it," Dmitri said. "But what else?"

"Well, my next step would be to go see Hayes and have a nice chitchat on what is going on. Maybe he knows something we don't. And third… Daniel!"

"What?" Daniel asked puzzled.

"You need to bring me some representatives from the Chinese government and Taiwan here on Terrania, as well as from all other countries that are pledging support to the US. But I don't think those other countries will make any problems," Jack said.

"And how do you think I should achieve that?"

"I don't know Daniel. If I knew I wouldn't be asking you, would I? If it was up to me, I would just beam half the Chinese government here and once I'm done I would probably let them go back home… _swimming_. Find a way Daniel."

"Okay, I'll try."

"Good, I'll ask the president to send someone from the US too," Jack said.

"Hey! I'm going too," the other Jack said, grinning.

The other O'Neill understood perfectly, "Good one."

"Jack, the both of you, don't go around terrorizing the president. Don't you think he has already enough on his plate?" Daniel scolded.

"Daniel, I think the president needs some fun right now, so, we are both going."

"We have to find a way to keep these two apart," Sam said, "in different galaxies if possible."

"I don't know. Maybe we could do a psychological study on their interaction," Daniel said.

"Does it involve keeping them locked somewhere?" Sam asked.

"Possibly. A study about what happens when two identical people get secluded for long periods of time," Daniel replied. "Some psychologists would love to see that."

"You two do know we are still in the room?" Jack number one said.

"We are not lab rats for crying out loud!" said Jack number two. "And we need to go, now, all of us."

The group quickly stood up, all on their way to whatever they needed to do.

* * *

**White house  
**_stardate: 2639.16_

"Aaaah! What the hell?" the President yelled the moment two O'Neills beamed in front of him.

"Hello Mr. President," both O'Neills said in unison. They had practiced before coming.

"Ok, that's it. I'm seeing double now. I really need a vacation," the president said to himself.

"No, Mr. President, you are not seeing double. There are simply two of us," future O'Neil said.

"Clone?"

"Nope."

"Android?"

"Not this time. It was time travel," Jack said.

"I would have never guessed that one. So, what brings you here?" Hayes said, but then, quickly shrugged, "Oh, who am I kidding? I know exactly why you are here; the both of you."

"That one wasn't that difficult to figure out, was it?" Jack replied. "What is going on, Mr. President?"

"To tell you the truth, I'm clueless as much as you are. The situation with China was stable for a very long time, ever since we helped them colonize another planet. There was no indication whatsoever something like this was going to happen."

"Yeah, we noticed. Your prompt reaction was also… somewhat unexpected," O'Neill said.

"I'm under tremendous pressure Jack. From the moment the Chinese have mobilized, I've been swamped by people in high places calling me and asking for immediate action to be taken; from the US, _and _from other countries. I had no other choice but to mobilize our entire asset in the Pacific Ocean."

"Mr. President, there are a few things we need to inform you," Jack said.

"Would I like it?" Hayes asked, already thinking about what the Terrans were preparing in regard to the current situation.

"First, the Council has decided we are not going to intervene _except_ if nukes start flying," Jack said.

"What are you planning to do in that case?"

"No matter from which country nukes are launched, they'll be intercepted, beamed into space or, if that is not possible, destroyed in flight," O'Neill said.

"I understand. In your position I would probably plan something similar, but that doesn't solve the bigger issue," the president added, understanding this was only a contingency plan and not a solution.

"You are right Mr. President. We are planning to bring a lot of people on Terrania in the next day or so, depending on how fast we'll get a response, mostly from China."

"You think they'll agree to mediation? I mean, I already tried, but they haven't responded yet, which is also strange. It's like they really want for things to go badly."

"I have my best man on it. I'm confident he'll be able to bring somebody," Jack said.

"Alright, if Daniel Jackson thinks he can pull it off, I'm all for it," Hayes replied.

"Good. You'll need to send me somebody too. Alright, I think we both have a lot of work, so…"

"Yes, we do. And Jack… we need to stop this," Hayes said, aware of how things could escalate quickly.

"I know, and we will Mr. President."

After that, both Jacks disappeared into thin air, leaving the president alone to start making calls.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**_stardate: 2640.46_

Jack, the one from the future, entered the room where, around a table displaying a holographic image of the Asian continent, several people were already awaiting his arrival with impatience. Except for the usual members of the High Council, there were the Commander of the Terran Space Fleet in the Milky Way Galaxy General Hank Landry, the Commander of the Terran Armed Forces General Anderson and Lieutenant General Samuel Pierce, Commander of the Terran Special Forces in the Milky Way galaxy.

They were all here to discuss the latest developments regarding the Taiwan incident before the meeting with the representatives of the various countries who had already arrived on Terrania began.

"General Landry, what do you have for us?" the only Jack present said, while taking his place around the table.

"Let's first see what the situation in the Taiwan Strait is," Landry began his report, allowing time for the people around the table to take a look at the holographic representation in real time. "One hour ago, the Fifth Carrier Strike Group, led by the USS George Washington reached the north side of the Taiwan Strait. The strike group has been denied entry into the strait by the PRC's naval units. For now, the US Fifth Carrier Strike Group has stopped their advancement, not wanting to engage the larger Chinese maritime presence. They are probably waiting for reinforcement to arrive from Pearl Harbor and San Diego, as well as from the Russian Pacific Fleet.

"In the meantime, the Chinese were victorious against the much smaller ROC's naval presence comprised of four destroyers and a dozen frigates, and they are already deploying their troops on the shore."

"How long until the rest of the Seventh Fleet or the Russian Fleet reaches them?" Klaus asked, looking at, at least on the map, the small American warships floating still far away.

"A few hours for the Russians and less than a day for the rest of the Seventh Fleet. When that happens, I believe the US will have no choice but to engage the Chinese Navy in battle, especially since they have already started deploying troops on ROC's soil. There's also another element in this theater of war that is of great concern, and that's the border between Russia and China," Landry said, nodding to Anderson.

"From the moment this entire incident started, the Russians have been amassing troops on the 3.500 km long border with China, with China doing the same on their side. I believe that, the moment the US and Russian fleets engage the Chinese, the Russians will cross the border without too much hesitation," Anderson explained.

"Which is practically the moment World War III starts," Jack said, thoughtfully.

"Exactly. We have been monitoring all nuclear silos as well as all submarines with nuclear payload from all sides, and so far there's no indication of them preparing to launch, but that could change on a moment's notice," Anderson replied.

"Alright, what's our status?" Jack asked looking at Landry.

"We have the five Auroras in orbit as well as the Hercules, the Enterprise and two AC-309 Assault Carriers. Fifty F-302s have already been scrambled with air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles loaded, awaiting further orders in low planetary orbit. We have Pierce's Special Forces ready to be deployed on a moment's notice if a surgical strike at some installation is necessary, as well as two battalions from the Army."

"Um… excuse me," Dmitri said, getting the attention from the other people in the room, "I thought that we were going to intervene only to stop nukes from reaching their targets. This looks to me more like a complete mobilization meant to invade China. What's going on Jack?"

"Dmitri, the decision of the Council stands. We are not going to engage anyone or anything except for flying nukes, but our decision can change very quickly and if that happens I'd like to be prepared, and not have to wait days to bring whatever we need before we can act," Jack said.

"What could possibly happen to change the Council's decision?" Dmitri asked.

"I don't know, probably nothing, but I rather have everything already in place just in case, no matter how small the chance," Jack said. Seeing that Dmitri understood, he continued by asking Daniel the next important question. "Did you convince the Chinese to send a representative?"

"I did," Daniel replied, not wanting to go into details.

"How?" Jack said, not knowing how he did it, and more than certain something fishy was going on here.

"I told them that if they didn't send someone, Jack O'Neill would start beaming half of their government… and once they are done explaining their recent actions, let them go back home swimming," Daniel replied.

"I'm impressed Daniel. I didn't know you had it in you to threaten a government with kidnapping," Jack said, although, not liking very much the fact that he used his name specifically, but he knew that by saying his name they would at least take the threat seriously. "Are our guests already in the conference room?"

"They have been for quite some time, and that's a problem."

"Why?"

"Because they are already on each other's throat."

"That's a good thing Daniel, not a bad one. Let's the three of us go and see what is really going on here," Jack said, thinking of him, Daniel and Dmitri.

Once they nodded, Jack instructed the Enterprise in orbit to make a side-by-side beaming, and the three of them were instantly transferred inside the small conference room where the representatives of the various countries were already seated around a table. Apparently, these people were not used to seeing people being beamed, at least if their startled faces were any indication of that fact. It was a good thing too, because it made them stop arguing.

Jack watched the people around the table, noticing the representatives of China, Taiwan, Russia, Germany, France, England, Italy and the US. He stopped the moment he looked at the US representative, with clear disgust. Why the president would send Strom as the US representative, was beyond his understanding.

Jack quickly put that issue aside, as not the most important thing right now, before asking Daniel the next obvious question, the one he should probably have asked before coming here, "What's the name of the Chinese representative?" Jack asked whispering.

Daniel shrugged. Instead of saying anything, he passed the Chinese representative's file to Jack.

Jack gave him a strange look, not knowing what was going on. He opened the file to see the name of the man. In big letters, at the top of the dossier, it was written – Chuin Gham.

Jack tried to keep a straight face, but the end result was uncanny. His eyes became as big as saucers while he tried to keep his lips tied shut in order not to laugh. His face had an expression almost as if he was having a prostate exam right at the moment. His eyes watering were just the final touch.

Finally succeeding in composing himself, O'Neill looked at Daniel, "Really?"

"Yeah."

"Daniel, he is _chewing_ right now!" Jack said, still whispering not to be heard by anyone else.

"I know."

Jack decided he needed to start this meeting as quickly as possible. He turned to face China's representative, keeping a straight face, "Mister… Gham, can you please explain to the rest of us what is going on?"

"I should ask you the same question," Gham said, looking accusingly at everybody else in the room. "The People's Republic of China does not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state, which means that this is an internal matter of China and its people. No other country has any right to intervene, and especially not the Terrans.

Shan Lee, the representative from Taiwan, burst the instant she heard those words coming out of the Chinese representative's mouth, "The Republic of China has been a sovereign state and it is recognized as such by the entire world for more than half a century. This is nothing less than a full invasion of another sovereign state."

"Russia agrees with Miss. Shan's statement and the People's Republic of China knows that fact very well," Kasparov, the Russian representative said.

"I can safely say that all other representatives in this room, completely agree with Kasparov's statement," Baker, the British representative said, receiving nods from the other representatives present.

"What you believe is of no concern to me or my people," Gham spat back, "and Russia's interest in this incident is only to prepare nothing less than a full invasion of China, which _is _recognized as a sovereign state, is it not?"

"Russia is merely reacting to this crisis. If China is prepared to attack a sovereign state like Taiwan, then who is to say they are not preparing to do the same with other neighboring states. Who knows who can be next?"

"The situation is simple Mister Gham," Strom said. "If China does not desist from invading Taiwan, the rest of the world will have no other choice but to react with overwhelming force."

"France concurs."

"Germany also concurs."

"As well as Italy."

"If the countries present here _try_ to interfere, China will have no other choice but to retaliate with whatever means at our disposal," Gham said in a threatening manner.

"Meaning?" Jack asked. So far, he had just listened to the conversation, wanting to hear where everybody was standing.

"It means exactly what I said. We are prepared to use whatever means necessary," Gham said with an arrogant smile.

"If you are thinking of your nuclear arsenal, you can forget it! Those missiles won't make it past the silos' top doors before being beamed into space or targeted and destroyed by the many warships above your collective heads. And you should also be careful about using them, because I can't guarantee they won't blow up once we hit them, which means they could very well explode on your soil."

"The Terrans have no authority to operate on Earth's soil!" Gham spat back.

"As you can see, no other representative here is complaining," Jack said, pointing at the other representatives who remained silent, with no objections being spoken.

"Then who is the aggressor now?" Gham said, hatefully.

"Still you," Jack replied. "Mister Gham, this entire farce has gone for long enough, and I have to ask you the same question that I asked at the beginning. What is _really _going on Mr. Gham?"

The representative remained silent.

"Because I don't have the slightest idea of what is the real reason behind all of this. China didn't touch Taiwan for more than half a century, if we don't take the three previous incidents into account that were more as a show of force than as a real invasion. Can you answer to my question then? Why is China suddenly interested in Taiwan, fully aware of what the repercussions would be?"

Jack waited for the answer for a long time, and the fact that Gham was smiling didn't inspire any confidence.

"Because we needed to reach _you_ here," Gham said, smiling, a moment before his expression changed into one of pain, clutching his abdomen.

Jack didn't understand what was going on, but the general alarm that started blaring, followed by forcefields popping up on the surrounding walls, told him it was nothing good.

The people in the room also started looking in puzzlement not knowing what was happening.

A voice came into Jack's earpiece, "_Jack, it's Sam."_

"Hi Sam. What's going on?" Jack said not fazed in the slightest. He was used to much stranger things.

"_The system has detected a pathogen in the room you are in, as well as in other areas where the Chinese representative's aids are located. Those areas have been sealed off by forcefields to prevent the pathogen form spreading. We still don't know what it is though."_

"So, nothing good I imagine. Any chance you can beam me out of here," Jack said, more preoccupied by the fact that he was trapped with politicians than by being exposed to an unknown pathogen. An hour inside a room with so many politicians, and he would want for the pathogen, whatever it was, to actually end his misery.

"_Not yet Jack. We first need to know what it is before we beam you into isolation rooms," _Sam replied over the comm.

"Alright; we'll wait."

"What is going on," Strom asked, clearly frightened.

"Apparently, the Chinese have brought a pathogen in here." Jack said, only afterwards realizing how maybe he shouldn't have said that to everybody in the room.

The representatives got on their feet in unison, all looking at the representative who was still clutching his stomach, but still managing to smile wickedly. Thankfully there were no pitchforks lying around in the room because Jack could already see the murderous expressions on everybody's face.

"Mister Gham, care to explain?" Jack asked calmly.

"We needed a way to get to Terrania to release it and what better way than to create an international incident. We knew you would have interfered."

"You do know that your moronic plan did nothing except infect a couple of dozen people in this room and a few other rooms on the island, and that's it?" Jack asked, clearly not impressed by the ingenuity of their plan.

The expression on Gham face changed suddenly from smiling to one of complete confusion. He was looking around the room as if he didn't know where he was. "What is going on here?"

"Is this some kind of stalling tactic, Mister Gham?" Kasparov asked.

"Who are you? How have I come here?" Gham said, still confused as well as in pain.

Jack looked at Daniel not understanding anything, a moment before his comm. unit chirped.

"_Jack we know what it is… and who's behind it."_

'_Who's behind it?' _Jack repeated in his mind the last part in confusion. Up to this moment he thought the Chinese were behind it, "Who?"

"_The Aschen Jack. It's a modified version of their biogenic weapon,"_ Sam said over the comm.

"So, we have a cure for that, right?" Jack asked, but the long pause didn't inspire confidence.

"_No Jack, we don't. Not yet at least."_

"How long Sam?" Jack asked, wanting to know the time it takes for the pathogen to do the job.

"_If it's like the one we have already worked on, less than a week."_

"Okay Sam, you know whom to call," Jack said, knowing they would need all the help they could get in order to find a cure in such a short time.

"_Already called Liam, the Nox and the Asgard. They are on their way as we speak. We will start beaming you shortly."_

"Okay, Sam, but be careful this thing doesn't spread."

"_We will; no need to worry about that."_

Jack finished the conversation with Sam, seeing many eyes looking in his direction, all eager to hear what was going on. Jack instead decided he would talk to Gham first, "Mister Gham, what do you remember last?"

Gham looked at Jack puzzled, "I… I was in my office working, and the next thing I know, I'm here in this room."

Daniel noticed Jack's worried expression, "Jack, what is it?"

"Dammit!"

"What is it Jack?" Dmitri asked again.

"He's been brainwashed," Jack answered.

"By whom, and… where?" Dmitri asked, knowing brainwashing technology is not present on Earth, at least as far as he knew.

"The Chinese colony. It's the perfect back door to Earth. The pathogen is Aschen," Jack said.

This revelation wasn't well received by anybody in the room, but Daniel was the fastest to ask, "How long Jack?"

"Don't know," Jack said, knowing that if this was a modified version of the Aschen bioweapon, all bets were off on the prediction front.

The room fell silent for a moment, all inside having a lot of questions, but nobody still able to actually speak them out loud. Their question would remain unanswered as people started disappearing, beamed away to isolation rooms in the medical wing on Terrania, much better equipped to deal with this kind of situations.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania**  
_stardate: 2641.26_

Liam beamed in the gate room, the moment his ship had entered Earth's orbit above Terrania. Not only he had received news of Earth on the brink of World War III, but they also asked him to come help fight a biogenic weapon that had been released on Terrania. With a foot large cube in his hands, he quickly moved in the direction of Sam who was impatiently awaiting his arrival.

"Hi Liam," Sam said the moment the two of them got near. She looked strangely at the device in his hands. "Is this…"

"Yes, but it's not the same as the one you found. I worked on this one to be able to safely be used by humans too."

"You think it will help?"

"The device works in a similar way as the large device on Dakara. As you know, that device can create life as well as take it. This one is calibrated to work with human DNA in a similar way, which means while it reinforces human cells it also breaks down other organisms, bacteria and viruses included. It should be able to free those infected of any pathogen while at the same time revitalizing cells that have been attacked by the same."

"That is great news! But, if that is true, why haven't you used it when the Alterrans were infected with the plague that almost wiped out your entire race?" Sam asked, already motioning to Liam to follow her on their way to the medical wing.

"This device _was _created around that exact period with that exact purpose in mind," Liam replied.

"So, why it didn't work?"

"It did, but it wasn't enough."

"I don't understand."

"I explained to you what it does. The device strengthens the subject's cells while it also destroys any pathogen, which _is_ the problem."

"But if that is true they would be clear of…" Sam paused, thinking of something. "Of course, that _is_ the problem. By freeing the subject of the virus, it also prevents the body from producing antibodies that would create the needed immunity to it. This way, nobody developed any immunity, which means they could be infected again and again at any time."

"Exactly, and when you have an entire race with billions of people infected, simply curing them is not enough because the next day they get infected again. No matter how many devices like this you have, you can't possibly cure them all and keep them in sterile conditions not to be infected again."

"But for a small number of cases, like what is happening here, the device is perfect, isn't it?"

"That is exactly what I was thinking and why I brought it here."

Sam was happy. This wasn't a cure that would create immunity to the virus, there would be no new antibodies in the subject's body, but they would be cured and that was all that mattered at this point.

They reached the isolation room with the patients inside. Without delay Sam ordered the Enterprise to beam the device Liam was holding inside the room, the instant after Liam activated it. The device disappeared from Liam's hands and appeared on the floor of the isolation room, already radiating light on all sides. As the people in the room noticed the newly appeared device, Daniel was actually the only one who jumped back, moving as far from it as possible. He had enough experience with this kind of devices.

Jack noticed Daniel's sudden jump, quickly understanding why he did it, but not moving. After all, even if this was the same as the one they had found, it was meant for Alterran physiology, and he was an Alterran now.

Noticing Liam and Sam standing just outside the isolation room, he walked towards them, pressing the button on the wall so they could hear him, "Think it will work?"

"I know it will work," Liam replied.

"Thank god! Ten more minutes with these people here and I swear I would have started knocking them unconscious," Jack replied. "These people simply cannot stop talking, even when threatened with bodily harm."

"I bet," Sam said smiling. She knew it couldn't be easy for him to stay in the same room with so many politicians.

It did take longer than ten minutes to clear them all, in which time Jack had had to listen to the many questions directed at him by the representatives, but he decided there was no point in answering any of them. There were other people that could do that once they were free and clear of the illness.

Finally free, Jack didn't wait one second longer. He contacted the Hercules in order to be beamed out of the room and on board the ship. He needed to find out what his double and the rest of the military were doing at the moment.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Earth's Orbit – Hercules' CIC  
**_stardate: 2641.36_

Jack reappeared on the CIC of the Hercules, a large tactical room located behind the ship's bridge.

"HE'S BACK!" O'Neill yelled once he saw Jack appear. "I hope you are free of the virus?"

"Of course I'm free! Who do you think I am, YOU?" Jack said.

"Yes, I do."

"Oh, right. So, what went down while I was in isolation?" Jack asked, changing the subject quickly.

Hank decided he should be the one to explain, mostly because he hated when Jack was explaining things to Jack. It was uncanny. "Your other you has just returned from the White House. He explained to the president what is going on, and that he needs to stand down."

"I gather the president didn't like being ordered," Jack, the one that just came onto the ship, replied.

"That's an understatement. He actually yelled at me, can you believe it?"

"I can," Jack number two replied. "So, did he stand down?"

"Yes, I convinced him that, since probably half of the Chinese government has been brainwashed by the Aschen, we are the one who should deal with the situation."

"And how are we going to _deal _with the situation?"

"Well, you can join us here around the holographic table and watch with us. We are about to start."

Jack stepped closer, looking at the 3D map on the table. The hologram was displaying a large portion of the Asian continent on one side, with smaller 3D maps on the other side zoomed in on a few locations of greater interest. As Landry touched another location on the larger map, on the other side, the northern portion of the Taiwan Strait appeared enlarged with real time feed of everything that was down there. Jack could actually see the F-18 Hornets circling above their naval units. At one point, he wanted to touch the USS George Washington, less than his finger in size, but he decided it would be weird.

"You wanted to touch it, didn't you?" Jack asked.

"Don't ask questions you know the answer to," Jack, the one that had just arrived, said a little pissed at his double. "So what's the plan?"

"Our first idea was to use the beaming to kidnap the members of their government, but it turns out the Chinese must have developed some kind of jamming that prevents us from doing it; so, we'll have to do it the old fashioned way," Landry explained.

"Oy," Jack grunted. "I can already see tomorrow's newspapers with the headline – 'Terrans invade China'."

"I told them that!" the other Jack added, looking at the other people in the room. "But they just won't listen."

"There is no other way Jack… to the both of you," Landry said, starting to feel really weird about this two Jacks situation, especially when they were together. "So, do we have a go or not?"

"Yes, you have a go," both Jacks replied in unison, looking at each other strangely.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Earth's Orbit  
**_stardate: 2641.72_

Inside the large hangar bay of the AC-309 Assault Carrier, dozens of Raptors, with their pilots and passengers already inside, patiently awaited the order to begin their mission. In the back of one of the raptors, the three teams of Special Forces were discussing recent events.

"You know, when I joined the Terrans, I actually liked the idea of me not having to shoot at other soldiers from some other country on Earth, and instead shooting at extraterrestrials. And look what my first mission turns out to be. To invade China," one of the SFs said.

"We are not invading China. We are simply going to remove a few individuals who have been brainwashed and that's it," his team leader replied.

"Aha, sure. The only problem is that those we need to capture are members of the Chinese government, and that _we,_" the SF said, pointing at everyone else in the back of the raptor, "are tasked with the freaking President of China."

"So, you think that some other raptor that, oh I don't know, has the task to get to the Chief of their PLA will have it easier? He's probably somewhere deep, inside some bunker below many more bunkers on top."

"I didn't mean it like that! I was thinking of _who_ we are kidnapping and not how difficult it would be," the SF said.

"Guys, we just received the green light," the pilot said to those in the rear of the raptor.

As the 'guys' in the back looked at each other, the raptor lifted off, quickly leaving the hangar bay on its way to Earth's atmosphere. Making its way to the Chinese aerial space, the raptor cloaked before being noticed by ground radars. This was the easy part, they all knew it. The difficult part was once they touched ground inside Zhongnanhai, the seat of power of the Chinese government in Beijing.

Inconspicuously touching ground into the large courtyard while still cloaked, the three teams exited the rear of the raptor, all clad in armor and zat-guns in hand. It had been decided they would try to minimize the number of fatalities. After all, they were here to _simply _take those that had been brainwashed, and not go around killing people.

The team, with their active camouflage system, moved quickly towards the building where their target was supposed to be. In front of the entrance door, there were two guards and the team moved into position to take them out. Two electrical discharges hit the two guards who dropped on the floor unconscious. Entering inside the building and moving silently, they quickly came under fire. There were many more guards inside, probably on high alert from the moment this incident had begun.

The three teams spread on both sides, finding cover behind any nook or crack they could find. One of the SFs, without hesitation, activated a Goa'uld-like shock grenade, tossing it deep on the other side of the hall. The grenade detonated, showering the entire room with intense light and sound. The guards dropped on the floor in pain, quickly falling unconscious. The grenade was the perfect weapon since the SFs were insulated from its effects by their armor.

Seeing there was no one else in the hall to stop them, the teams moved on the upper floors. Not knowing where exactly the president was, the teams spread on various floors to cover more ground quicker.

Team alpha proceeded on the second floor and towards where they believed the president probably was, in his office. Coming on the top of the stairs, they quickly came once again under fire from more guards. Since the grenade did a great job the first time, there was no reason why not use them again.

Another flash of light washed the room, with the many guards dropping like sacks of potatoes. So far everything was going well, with no fatalities whatsoever on either side. Moving in front of the Presidential Office, alpha team quickly found out the doors were locked. Placing a small but powerful block of P4, not too big to blow everyone inside, including the president, the team leader pushed the red button on the detonator.

The charge blew the double doors inward, showering everyone inside with splintered wood. Leaning through the opening, the team noticed the president was hunkered down with his security detail around him. Shooting zats at them, the president in a moment became the only one in the room still conscious, at least until the team rushed inside and grabbed him. Shouts in Chinese and the unwillingness to comply with the SFs, grabbing and pushing, quickly made them realize that an unconscious president was the current solution to their problem. After firing with his zat at the president, the team leader grabbed him in mid-fall, quickly putting him on his shoulder. With the increased strength of his exoskeleton armor, it was very easy to carry him.

Notifying the other teams that the package had been secured, all three teams began their hasty retreat. When the team with the unconscious leader reached the entrance hall, the other two teams were already there, already having taken care of the guards that had somehow, from somewhere, appeared. Altogether exiting the building, they found their ride hovering in front of them with an already lowered rear ramp. The raptor was under fire, but they didn't care much about it since rifles could do very little to the armored craft. Or at least that was until the pilot saw one guard coming out with a rocket launcher on his shoulder. It was stupid too, since their president was now inside the raptor.

Through his neural interface, the co-pilot activated the craft's minigun located underneath. It quickly turned in the direction of the affronting guard, spinning its rotor to thousands of rpms before letting loose of a short but very deadly stream of bullets. The guard and the launcher went flying in the air, shredded in pieces. It was the first fatality of this entire mission, and the co-pilot didn't like being the one responsible for it. Cloaking, the pilot took the craft up and away from the Chinese governmental building.

While this and other missions around China were being performed in order to capture governmental officials suspected of having been brainwashed, the Chinese military went completely berserk. Orders had been given to mobilize all their assets still on the ground. The first reaction was the scrambling of Sukhoi Su-30 fighters in the air, many of them on their way towards the US and Russian fleet in the Taiwan Strait, while others towards the Russian border. Navy and ground forces as well began moving, with the navy on their way to face the US Seventh Fleet and the ground forces readying to attack the Russian units on the border. Apparently, the fact that the _aggressor _were the Terrans and not the US or Russia, didn't mean much, probably because they didn't have any way to target the Terrans even if they wanted to. They were all very high above them, or very distant somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

As fighters moved to intercept the US Hornets in the air above the Seventh Fleet, squadrons of vipers started appearing as if from nowhere. With the new targets now in sight, the Chinese fighters quickly changed their focus to the new arrivals. From more than 30 miles away, the Chinese fighters let loose of their R-27 moderate range missiles one after the other. It was something the pilot of the vipers very much liked to see. The Chinese were targeting them instead of the American Hornets.

Allowing the missiles to reach a distance of 5 miles, the vipers quickly cloaked again, slightly changing their course. The missiles simply lost their targeting data, continuing onward with no real target to hit. The Chinese fighters had just lost half of their payload for nothing. Now it was time to start scaring the living crap of the Chinese pilots. Pushing to afterburner, the vipers quickly gained speed to above Mach IV, a speed no conventional aircraft could ever hope to achieve. Overpassing the Chinese fighters, the vipers made a sharp turn of hundred and eighty degrees, quickly coming behind the unfortunate Chinese fighters. Suddenly, all vipers decloaked at point blank distance from their prey.

The instruments on board the Chinese fighters went berserk with proximity alerts and weapons locks. The pilots pulled their craft and started a myriad of evasive actions in an attempt to shake of the vipers currently glued on their asses, but it was a completely superfluous exercise since the superior space-fighters were having an easy job of mimicking their maneuvers they would make with the help of their inertial dampeners nullifying most of the inertia. The vipers didn't have any intention of firing on the Chinese fighters, but that was a fact their prey didn't know. The way they were trying to shake them off would make them burn their fuel reserves very quickly and they would have to return to base, which was exactly what the Terrans wanted to achieve.

Aboard the USS George Washington, Vice Admiral Scott Perry watched the events unfold. He smiled widely when he understood what the Terran fighters were doing. Still, there was the problem of the incoming Chinese destroyers, frigates, missile boats and whatnot. These fighters could not possibly stop them with such tactics.

"Sir, we are receiving a message from the Terrans. They say we need to land our fighters or they need to _'bug out' _at least twenty miles from our current position," a crewman said.

"Bug out?" the vice-admiral asked.

"Yes sir. It says bug out."

"Alright. Inform our fighters they are to keep their distance, at least twenty miles away from us and away from the engagement area. I really want to see why though," the vice admiral said.

After a few minutes the same crewman informed the vice admiral that all fighters had retreated as ordered. The admiral still didn't know why though. Nothing was happening and the Chinese ships were almost inside weapons range of their missiles. Although, the vice admiral did have the slightest feeling the sunlight was somewhat dimming out. It was like there were clouds…

The crew of the USS George Washington stopped doing whatever they were doing and began staring at the sky. Massive dark clouds, unnatural clouds, began forming above their heads. Nobody on the carrier had ever seen such weather. As they continued looking at them, they started seeing glimpses of something forming in the middle of the clouds formation; something massive. Soon the people on the largest super carrier in the fleet watched as a space ship of almost ten times their size, appeared in the sky above them. The super carrier was 330 meters in length but this thing was completely obscuring the sky. It was at least three kilometers long.

"My God," the vice admiral muttered. He had seen pictures of the Aurora class, and even knew the general specifications of the behemoth, but one thing was seeing it on paper and very much another having the thing above your head. The vice admiral, at that moment and for the first time in his entire life, felt… small.

The Chinese were having an even worse feeling, with throats tightening in the exact instant when they saw what was on the horizon. The thing was massive, and they all knew that its size was the least of their worries. There was nothing on their ships that could possibly take that thing down. And even worse, they all knew that thing could pick any of the many types of weapons at its disposal to blast them all to pieces, destroying their entire fleet in mere minutes. This was even worse than David against Goliath. This was like… a mouse against Goliath on steroids. The people on the bridge of the Chinese Luhu destroyer looked at each other, not knowing exactly what to do. Thankfully, they made the right decision.

The Chinese military might was in a state of complete disarray, with their units facing an impossible foe and with the Chinese military and political leadership gone missing. They didn't even have those who could give the codes to activate their nuclear deterrent, and the few generals who were still on Earth's surface, as opposed to those that had been snatched and taken in orbit, didn't know what to do or even if they _should _do anything. There was also the fact that many of them didn't understand why their beloved leaders would even attack Taiwan. They all knew what the repercussions would be of such act.

* * *

**Earth – Terrania  
**_stardate: 2643.56_

Through a one way glass window, Klaus, Jack, Dmitri and Daniel were looking inside the interrogation room where the President of China was seating in a chair. His face was definitely not one of a happy man.

"How did it go?" Jack asked.

"He was brainwashed, the same as most of the people we've snatched," Klaus said.

"Was?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, we were able to deprogram all of them, but there is still work to do," Klaus replied.

"What work?" Daniel interjected into the conversation.

"They are not programed anymore, but that doesn't mean they are compliant. There's a lot of arrogance, disbelief, more arrogance; you know, the usual stuff."

"So, he still doesn't believe he was brainwashed?" Jack asked.

"I think deep down he knows. We are asking him constantly why he would in his right mind order the invasion of Taiwan, and I think that since he doesn't have a good answer to that question, he will soon start cooperating with us."

"Good, because so far, things are going pretty good down on the surface, but that can change if we don't return him to power. He needs to be the one to tell his people to stand down."

"Don't worry. One more hour and he'll be ready to be returned home."

"Good to hear. Maybe this won't turn out to be such a bad thing in the end, not on a global scale at least."

"What do you mean?" Daniel asked.

"Because, there is no way China will stay out of the Terran Alliance and keep its colony on another world. They ended up being the perfect back door for the Aschen, and we can be very happy nothing worse happened," Jack said.

Jacks comm. unit chirped the moment he stopped talking, "_Jack you need to come to the council's room right away. The others too," _Sam said over the comm.

Jack knew he shouldn't have said that last part.

The four of them beamed in the conference room where the rest of the council was looking at the BBC newscast giving a report from China.

Jack looked at the large screen, seeing the reporter talking about the Terrans having kidnapped people for unknown reasons. "Is that why you called us? We already knew the news would have a field day with our incursion."

"No, is not that. I called you because of what's _not_ on the news," Sam said. Seeing Jack's dumbfounded expression, she continued. "All news stations around the world are reporting the Taiwan incident from the moment it started. And they will probably continue reporting about it for weeks to come. What they are not reporting is the sudden appearance of medical cases all over the world. Look." Sam pushed a button showing a large map of Europe and the American continent.

Jack watched as red dots started appearing all over the map, but there was something strange about them, something he didn't understand, "Wait, why are all major cities the least infected? If this is an attack, wouldn't they target Paris, Berlin, New York and other major cities first?"

Sam was shaking her head. "Not if you want the spreading to stay out of the news. Think about it. You infect smaller towns and villages all over the world. As a result there are fewer cases in larger and better equipped hospitals where an epidemic would be detected much faster. And with the current crisis in China, no one wrote about these sporadic cases more than a few lines on page six of the local newspapers. But these people still travel. They take trains, planes, they go to major cities. Jack this has been going on from the moment China invaded Taiwan."

"Mother f…! This was the Aschen plan all along. Of course they knew we would never let World War III happen, but we were too busy to notice this. And now it is too late, isn't it?" Jack said pissed as hell.

"For containing the spread, yes. There is no single source to contain. It's already everywhere and it's going to get ugly very quickly," Sam said.

"Mother…!" Jack shouted. "What are our experts saying? I suppose it is the same crap that infected us."

"It's not good Jack. The Aschen did a real number on that virus. It is a combination of their bioweapon and the priors' plague. Liam and Lya are working on it already, and they say they will find a cure for sure, but not soon enough. Not before people start dying, and even then you still need to produce the cure and distribute it to the entire world."

"Oh, the Aschen are going to get the biggest bomb we can make, that's for sure. Even if it has to be as big as Anubis' asteroid," Jack replied, sighing and trying to calm down. "We screwed up this one Sam, we screwed up big time."

"I know," Sam said, but she was actually already thinking about the bomb the size of the asteroid. With this, Jack had actually given her an idea for a weapon.

Liam entered in the room, walking towards the two of them.

"Did you see…" Jack started saying.

"I did, Sam already informed me of everything. With Lya's help, I think we can make a cure, but it will take a few weeks."

"We don't have a few weeks!" Jack said pissed. Not their fault they couldn't make it faster, but he was still pissed.

"Nothing we can do Jack. The virus is constantly mutating. We need to create an antiviral that targets the part of the virus that doesn't mutate and that's not easy. It is almost the same crap as five million years ago."

"Wait, are you saying that the priors' virus is the same that exterminated you entire race?"

"Similar, but not the same. I think the priors used a modified version of it in order to be more able to control it and to target human physiology rather than Alterran. With the changes the Aschen have made, we have a nasty bug on our hands to deal with."

"Does that mean that the Ori are behind the virus that wiped out your entire race?" Sam asked.

"It is one of the theories, yes. The virus the priors are using is definitely based on that one," Liam paused. "I need to go work on this. I'll let you know the moment I have something."

"Wait! Can't you use the weapon on your ship the same way you did with those bugs on P-something," Jack asked.

"No, it wouldn't work. I told you, the virus has mutated so many times already that there is no single DNA that can be targeted. The weapon would kill one strand of the virus where there are probably thousands of different strands already. Jack, I'll find a cure I promise, it will just take time." Liam explained before leaving the room. More time he spent here explaining, less time was spent in the lab.

There was nothing else anyone could do. They now had to wait, the worst part of their job. Jack as well left the room. He will at least go and solve the China problem, and this time it would be permanent.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aschen Prime  
**_stardate: 2647.39_

Inside a room, several Aschen were once again meeting to discuss the progress regarding the war against the Terrans.

"We have lost contact with the Chinese colony. The Terrans must have removed the gate from the planet," one of the Aschen in the room said.

"It means our plan has started," another Aschen replied.

"I don't like the lack of information on the current situation on Earth."

"We know dissemination of the virus has succeeded. We can predict the result with great accuracy."

"That is, if the Terrans are unable to find a cure."

"All our studies have predicted the Terrans not being able to achieve that, even with the help of the Asgard. If they still exist, that is."

"If that is the case, their world will soon be decimated, and with that the Terrans will have only their two colonies to rely upon. We need to prepare to give them the final blow."

"We still don't know where the second colony is. The Chinese knew only the location of Tollana."

"The second colony is only a year old. It is of little concern to us."

"What about the Jaffa?"

"Their attack on our other worlds in the confederation has considerably diminished our food reserves, and we still haven't been able to make up for it on new worlds."

"There is little we can do about it now, but we do need to plan our attack on the Jaffa worlds."

"Our study shows that the virus we have created for the Terrans will have little to no effect on the Jaffa who are using Tretonin. Only the human population on their worlds will be affected."

"Of that we are all aware, but we have other means to attack their worlds. Most planets have little to no defenses, especially their gates. We can send our drones to attack them, followed by ships."

"Agreed. Is there any news about our missing ship?"

"No. The last information we have is that the ship made contact with the Terrans who were trying to talk to us about a possible armistice."

"Do you believe the Terrans are behind the disappearance of our ship?"

"I do not know. If the ship was attacked, they would have sent a distress signal. Instead, what we know is that the Terrans left without engaging our ship in battle."

"This could be a problem. If they have captured our ship, they will be able to reverse engineer it."

"That is very unlikely. If the ship was boarded instead of destroyed, the ship would have self-destructed. We have put many security precautions to prevent that exact scenario."

"I agree. The most logical conclusion is that the ship's been destroyed."

"The loss of one ship is irrelevant. We need to start planning the attack on Tollana."

"Do you believe the Terrans will not retaliate? Shouldn't we keep our fleet close to home in order to protect our homeworld?"

"It is possible, but our defenses are strong, and the Terrans still need their fleet to fight the Ori."

"You believe they will not turn against us with the Ori present? After all, the Terrans feel emotions like anger. They will no doubt want revenge."

"If they come, our defenses will be able to fend off any attack. We cannot keep our fleet in orbit for an indefinite amount of time."

"Agreed. We must strike now that the Terrans are weak."

The group continued their discussion, talking about the way they would bring the rest of the Terrans to their knees as well as the Jaffa who had dared attack them. There was no more thinking that the Ori or the by now more or less defunct Lucians would do that for them. They needed to act now, even before the Ori are taken care of.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated. **


	20. Progress

**Reviews:**

**StargateFFWriter: **No problem. I'd planned to include an international conflict a very long time ago, with the Chinese Colony as the perfect back door for the Aschen. Still haven't read 'Threat Vector'. It is a pretty new novel too.

**Stromwolf3710: **Thanks. It was fun writing it too.

**Rudy Pena: **Thanks. More coming right away.

**Chronus1326: **LOL. Nice little dialog. When there are two Jacks in a scene I also like to call one of them Jack and the other O'Neill. From now on they will also get separate obligations, at least most of the times.

I had the same feeling. One ship good for everything. It doesn't sound very realistic, but the show probably had some budgetary constraints that I don't have. I can make as many ships as I want.

The intelligence report I wrote at the end of the first book already has those new ships. Although, at the time they were still just in development. The Aschen don't feel fear, but they will come very close to starting to feel it.

**EvilTheLast: **Oh, I have great plans for the Aschen. Wicked plans.

Okay, I didn't watch 'Solvent Green' and now that I know what's about, I'm not sure that I even want to watch it. But I do think it wouldn't be above the Aschen to do something like that.

**Senrab Nomis: **It wasn't easy to keep the idea behind the Chinese colony hidden for twenty chapters – it was my plan all along – but as you said, I needed several years to pass before I could use it. The Chinese have a stargate on their planet, and they began exploring to other worlds almost immediately by sending teams. And the Aschen are doing the same ever since they captured Gerak's fleet. It was inevitable they would meet, and with the Aschen capable of brainwashing them, the rest is easy to predict.

Tollana is the best defended planet after Earth and Asura. Something Gerak had found out the bad way.

The virus is still there, taking lives until they find a cure. But maybe not as much lives as they thought it would take. The time-dilation idea is good. Maybe if I thought about it I could have use it somehow. Still, creating a time-dilation field around Earth would cripple the normal workings of Terrania and creating bubbles on the planet where the outbreak is would cripple Earth global economy. Very weird stock market would that turn out to be.

Superweapon specs coming up right away.

**Epi: **Yeah, I know the half-life. Those higher elements are not stable, at least not any isotope we've found yet with a useful half-life at least, but apparently in the stargate universe there are heavier elements that are stable. Naquadah and Naquadria are the same element. Naquadria is just an isotope of Naquadah, like U238 and U235 - and many more - are isotopes of element U234.

Well, maybe I did screw up the naming convention, but I did it a very long time ago. I called William (VI – Liam) in the first chapter of the first book a Virtual Intelligence, as in a virtual copy of Liam's consciousness, so I couldn't use that name later to explain something else. Then, there is the name AI (Artificial Intelligence) which I gave to Borealis' avatar, which is still different from a Cylon. They are different in the sense that the AI on Borealis will never reply to an order like 'Plot course for Earth' with 'Sorry, I don't want to work here anymore. I'm going in the private sector where the real money is'. The Cylons did just that. They rebelled. They are able to think for themselves, wishing to have a different life than being just foot soldiers. I would call that Sentient Intelligence (SI)… maybe.

HA! If something like Microsoft's OS was on that planet, we are screwed. You can't win against something like that. And will never be able to fully understand it.

Well, later I'll try to explain the Terrans and the rest of the SGA wish to annihilate a planet full of sociopaths versus reluctance in committing genocide. But a lot more will have to happen before that.

**Nashakell:** Thanks for the compliment. I would be happy if they were to continue the series, no matter on which story. Yeah, the introduction of the Cylons was a very controversial point. I still don't know if there will be a spin-off. There won't be battlestars and basestars in this story though. And it seems you didn't have to wait for long for the next chapter.

**Thanks to my beta and hope you'll enjoy this chapter too.**

* * *

**Earth – Terrania  
**_stardate: 2667.26_

"Has anyone any idea what is going on here?" Jack asked the assembled group.

Sam, Klaus, Dmitri and Daniel all looked mystified, not knowing what to say.

"There is something fishy going on here, _that's _for sure. Is Liam coming?" Jack said.

"He is, though, he's pretty pissed we are constantly calling him while he's trying to make the cure," Sam said.

"I know, but he's the only one who _might_ know what's going on," Jack said, the same moment Liam entered the room.

Entering the room at a quick pace, Liam froze in his track, as if struck by lightning, "Oh come on! Stop spying on these people. It's… rude!"

"I always forget you can see me," Ilium said, at the same time appearing so everyone else in the room could see him as well.

Liam decided that the peeping habits of the ascended weren't his primary concern right now. He wanted to return to his work as soon as possible, "Jack, why did you call me here? I have work to do you know."

"Well, we were a little lost on what is exactly going on, since a bunch of people around the world who were infected by the Aschen virus have ascended, while children are miraculously getting cured from the illness. But now that _he's _here I think I know whom to ask," Jack explained, looking intently at Ilium.

Liam on the other hand started thinking about what was going on. Suddenly, his jaw dropped by a foot, staring and Ilium in confusion. "You are recruiting!"

Ilium remained impassive, "I don't know what you are talking about."

"Don't give me that crap! You are recruiting humans for what is coming, aren't you?"

"I really have no idea what you are talking about. We are merely helping a few _good_ people ascend when they die, and that's all."

"Can someone explain to the rest of us what is going on?" Jack practically yelled.

Liam took a deep breath, "When I first heard about the people infected by the Wraith virus suddenly ascending, I thought it was some rogue ascended Lantean who felt guilty, or because he didn't want to see the Wraith spreading again. But now that the same is happening here, with _him _here, I think there is more to it," Liam said, pointing a thumb at Ilium.

"What did you mean by recruiting?" Sam asked puzzled.

Liam turned to face Ilium, "We are preparing to go to the Ori galaxy, and he knows there's a chance the Ori will strike back in fear we could overrun their followers. He's recruiting soldiers if the Ori decide to come here. Isn't that right Ilium?"

"As you humans often say, I'm pleading the fifth on that one. We are just helping humans in need, and let's leave it at that," Ilium said, giving Liam a threatening look.

And Liam did. After all, they were helping people ascend, people who would otherwise have died. And they were also curing children too young to become their soldiers, "Fine. Jack, we will have the cure in the next few days. I'm going back to work if there is nothing else you need."

As Jack nodded, Liam turned and quickly left the room.

Ilium watched Liam leave, turning and seeing a lot of eyes on him, "Bye."

After Ilium disappeared, Jack sighed. "Does anyone have the slightest of feelings we are just pawns in a _big _cosmic joke?" Seeing that no one wanted to add anything, he continued. "Anyways, Daniel, we have a meeting with a couple of presidents in the White house, do we not?"

"Yes, we do; in five minutes," Daniel said while checking his watch.

Without saying anything else, Jack used his comm. device to contact the Enterprise in orbit. The next moment the two of them were beamed away. It was time to get the Chinese on the right path.

After seeing that one after the other half the people in the room had left, Sam turned to Dmitri, "What do you think the repercussions of this entire mess will be for us?"

"You mean, from the public?"

"Yeah. After all, we let a deadly virus reach Earth. I don't see people being too happy about that."

"Actually, I think it will be minimal. At least, that is the case for us," Dmitri said.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"Dmitri is right," Klaus said, slipping into the conversation. "The Terrans were the ones who voiced the problem of the Chinese getting a colony the most. We told both the Chinese and the governments in the Terran Alliance that allowing the Chinese to have a colony was a bad idea. They didn't listen and the result was the Chinese getting infiltrated, probably by one of their teams getting caught while exploring the gate network. Maybe we will get some heat because we were unable to detect people from the Chinese colony having been brainwashed, but I think the public will realize we couldn't possibly have tested every Chinese who came back to Earth for that. The Chinese would have also protested if they had been mistreated in such a way by our… _customs service._"

"That's exactly what I'm thinking," Dmitri said. "The Chinese will get most of the heat, and probably the governments in the Terran Alliance too since they buckled under the Chinese demands when they shouldn't have."

"So, we are in the clear? Huh. I never thought that after such a mess we would get free and clear of any blame."

"We are still not free and clear of anything, but after we deliver the cure for the virus, we will be even construed as saviors after China's screw up. And we still have to deal with the Chinese colony. We can't allow that to continue any longer."

"Oh, that's Daniel's and Jack's problem, not mine. I'm going back to my lab to do something I actually like doing. With Rodney out of the picture, I'm having more work than ever before. For all his flaws, the man was able to work on dozens of projects at once while getting results incredibly fast. Now I understand why he was drinking ten cups of coffee a day. It is strange he didn't switch to amphetamines to keep up with the workload. To make things worse, even Zelenka is out of the picture and…" Sam stopped talking, noticing the other two people in the room stifling a laugh at her bitching about the unfairness of her current situation. "Well, I'm going to my lab. See you later guys."

With Sam leaving, the two remaining Council member decided it would be a good thing to go eat something. Who knows when and what the next crisis would be.

* * *

**Earth - White House  
**_stardate: 2667.87_

"Mr. President, there is no chance in hell you are keeping that colony. It's a massive security risk for the entire world. Something we have painfully witnessed in these last few days," Jack said, angrily.

"There are ten million Chinese on that planet. There is no way we can take them back so quickly. And the stipulation we made with the countries in the Terran Alliance still stands. Nothing has changed in that regard," the Chinese president replied.

Jack thought about how in hell had the Chinese managed to transfer so many of their people on another planet in so little time. All three Terran colonies didn't even get close to that number, and they had been at it for much longer and with much, much more resources at their disposal, "I don't care. That colony brought us a deadly virus and half the Chinese government was brainwashed. You included!"

The Chinese president was fuming inside. He didn't like being talked like that by anyone, but the truth was he liked the fact that he had been brainwashed even less, "Then you must help us relocate our people back on Earth, because we don't have the resources to do it alone. And you must also help us build housing for them on Earth.

Jack was about to say something like 'screw you!', but Daniel interjected before he could say anything, "Yeah, there is a slight problem with that too. The people on the colony actually don't want to come back."

"What?" the Chinese president yelped, even jumping a little on his chair.

"When we reached the colony and informed them of what happened, and what will probably happen next, they quickly gathered together and began talking about independence. In less than two days, they have formed a provisional government and declared their independence under their new name Democratic Republic of China. They are already preparing elections for their real government."

"You must go to the colony with your warships and if necessary use force to bring them back!" the Chinese president ordered.

Jack was again about to say 'screw you!', but Daniel was again faster. Jack had the slightest feeling Daniel was doing it on purpose.

"Mr. President, we and the other races in the Second Great Alliance have taken their wish for independence under consideration, and I can tell you right now that _all _races in the alliance are thinking of acknowledging their independence. Furthermore, if we accept their sovereignty, we the Terrans will immediately start the process of making an alliance of our own with them in order to give them protection against other races in the galaxy."

The Chinese president stood up angrily, "This is preposterous! I will not stand here and be forced to accept such terms," he said, moving quickly towards the exit.

"Mr. President!" Jack shouted, thankful he got the chance before Daniel said anything, "That is not all. You have a _month _to sign the Terran Alliance Charter and bring China into the fold."

"What?" the Chinese president yelped again, red as a paprika, "I will not stand here and be dictated terms like this! You have no way of forcing me to enter the Terran Alliance!" the President continued, but he too knew that wasn't the case, especially with what was going on in China right now. Half of the population was in the streets protesting, Hong Kong was asking independence too, as well as other regions in China. Not to mention they were asking for his head on a platter. And this was what was going on in China. Other countries, and rightfully Taiwan, were all in uproar for what China had done.

"I discussed this with leaders all around the world, and they all agree that if you don't sign the damn charter inside a month from now, the rest of the world will put such an embargo on China that you won't be able to take a pack of matches across your border! I promise you Mr. President, sign that damn charter or it will get really ugly!"

The Chinese president was standing frozen, slightly changing color from pink to red, then to green. Without saying anything, he stormed out of the room.

Hayes finally started laughing. He had been holding it back the entire time, "Oh man. It wasn't easy keeping a straight face while he was changing colors like that."

Daniel looked at Jack and then at the president. These two were either the worst diplomats to have ever existed, or they were some kind of geniuses nobody understood. He needed to talk to Weir to find out if really shouting and laughing at the President of China was really such a good tactic. "You people really think this is the best tactic in approaching the Chinese president?"

"Leverage Doctor Jackson. It's all about leverage," Hayes said, finally able to stop laughing.

"Leverage?"

"Yeah. The situation in China is all screwed up, and he will need help if he wants to keep the peace… and his head probably. He needs the other countries' help right now, and we can use this to force his hand," Jack explained.

"And he knows that too, hence the changing of colors," Hayes continued, coughing a laugh.

"You think he'll drop the matter of bringing the colonists home?" Daniel asked.

"Not a lot he can do about that. Besides, he isn't really preoccupied about those ten million people as much as he's preoccupied about the precedent it creates. It sends the wrong message," Jack replied.

In the meantime, Hayes changed his expression to a serious one. "Jack, how is it going with the cure, and what's up with the whole ascension ordeal?"

"The cure will be ready in a week or so; at least that's what Liam tells me. As far as the ascension thingy is concerned, I'm still not sure."

"You know, we are having problems with that too. There are people starting to believe people are turning into angels, and I'm not the one who'll start explaining to the public about ascension, ascended beings, the Alterrans and the can of warms _that_ would open," Hayes replied.

The people on Earth knew about the stargate, about other races in the galaxy and the past wars with the Goa'uld and others, but no one ever disclosed the existence of ascended beings, the Alterrans and the fact that the human race was created by them as their second iteration. If they did, people would have to rethink many religions around the planet, with many more religious people being enraged by such _'lies'_. Not to mention the possibility of new religions coming into play. Hayes still couldn't believe there was now a new religion worshiping the Goa'uld and the _Gods of Old_ they had been impersonating so long ago.

"I somehow think that you didn't mention it because of people believing in angels," Jack said, thinking there must be more to it.

"You know Jack that, whenever there is talk about angels showing up, there are inevitably talks about the impending apocalypse that is apparently inevitable for some people," Hayes said.

"Oh, that problem. Well, I'm pretty sure that once we start distributing the cure, this will all stop."

"Pretty sure?"

"Yeah. As I said before, I'm not completely sure what is exactly going on here. We could say it is above our collective pay grades to know."

* * *

**Furling Galaxy – Unknown Location**  
_stardate: 2679.4_

Soren stepped inside the conference room aboard one of the newly built Edenian warships. Inside the room, ten aliens were seated around a large circular table in the middle of the room. Those were the representatives of the coalition that had been formed with the single goal of fighting the Sanarians.

In the beginning, Soren had been reluctant to join them in their fight against the Sanarians. After all, their main goal was to find the Furling and not to fight a war in this remote galaxy, so far away from their home. But the destruction of one of their ships at the hand of the Sanarians and a few subsequent close calls, almost ending in the same way, had made him change his mind. They were in the fight, even if they didn't want to be. And since they already were in the fight, there was no reason why not to do it together, all races that had decided they would not stand passive anymore and allow the Sanarians to terrorize them.

"Thank you all for coming here today," Soren said, noticing the various nods from the ten aliens in the room. "In recent months, the Sanarians have ambushed several of our ships on a regular basis and, although we still don't like the idea of fighting a war so quickly after having settled on a new planet, we have decided to openly declare war to the Sanarians and join this coalition."

The ten aliens in the room smiled as they heard the news. They had been waiting for the Edenians to join the battle for a long time.

"We are glad to hear you have decided to join us," the N'Gati representative replied.

"Thank you," Soren replied, while another Edenian was giving each representative a small crystal, "The crystal you have just received, contains the technical specifications on how to modify your sensors so that you can detect the Sanarian ships even when cloaked. Their cloak creates a certain interference we can detect and I believe those changes to your sensors will allow your ships to detect such interference as well."

Once again the aliens in the room smiled, with the N'Gati representative again being the one to reply. "Thank you. This will greatly improve our chances of detecting their ships before they can attack us. Now that you have joined us in this war, and with these improvements to our sensors, the Sanarians will be in serious trouble."

"I'm glad to hear that. I would also like to ask you if you have a plan on how to take the fight back to the Sanarians? The sensors improvements will help detect their ships, but I don't believe this to be enough."

The N'Gati looked at the other aliens in the room, receiving a small nod. "We have a plan, but it is dangerous."

"I'm listening," Soren replied. Being at war is always dangerous.

The N'Gati representative placed a small device on the table. As he activated the device, above it, a 3D map representing the region of space they were in, quickly appeared. "As you know, the Sanarians are located at the very edge of this region of space." The N'Gati said as the 3D map showed a region colored in red that represented the Sanarian territory. "Their influence in this region of space is only possible because of the several outposts they have built in recent years deep inside our region of space. They use these outposts to resupply and repair their ships on a daily basis, and we believe that, without them, they would be forced to retreat much farther back into their territory."

"All right, that makes sense. Your idea is to disrupt their supply lines and force them to cross a much larger space each time they need to resupply or repair their ships. Now, what's the dangerous part of this plan?"

"Yes, of course, the dangerous part. Well, the dangerous part is reaching those outposts on their respective planets. They have formidable defenses in orbit, satellites capable of destroying even a large fleet that tries to get close, but we believe that, by combining our forces, we can break their defenses and succeed in raiding those planets."

"I see. Well, that is a possibility, but, as you all know, we do not have a lot of ships at our disposal. What difference can half a dozen more warships make?"

"We saw what your warships can do. We believe it will be more than enough to overpower the orbital defenses and any Sanarian ship that is there."

"What kind of losses are you predicting in such an attack?"

"Not high. Definitely not higher than twenty percent."

"I don't like that number. Twenty percent is too many ships lost. We can end up losing more ships than the actual gain of destroying those outposts is. And we still don't know how many ships they will have once we decide to strike. The battle could even turn in their favor, with our forces sustaining losses without succeeding in destroying the outposts."

"We are aware of the risk, but this is the only possibility we have to force the Sanarians to retreat."

Soren remained silent, looking at the 3D map now showing one planet with the orbital satellites around it. There were many of them, too many to take them all out and strike at the planet without incurring heavy losses. "Do you have information about those satellites?"

The N'Gati representatives looked strangely at Soren. He pushed something on the small device that was projecting the image, and some information started scrolling. "It is not much, mostly what we were able to collect the few times we faced those satellites in battle."

Soren looked at the data scrolling, reading intently the specs of the satellites. He smiled. "Those satellites were constructed to fire in space only. They cannot fire on the planet's surface. Is that correct?"

"It is, but how does that helps us?" the representative asked, puzzled by Soren's smile.

"What if we could deploy troops on the ground, without having to fight the satellites?" Soren said, leaving the aliens utterly puzzled. There was no way to deploy enough troops, even with teleportation systems, without being targeted and destroyed by those satellites beforehand.

Soren continued smiling as he watched their utter puzzlement. They didn't know about the stargate.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – P3X-529  
**_stardate: 2693.43_

Walking down a narrow path, SG-1 was making its way to check out the discovery found on P3X-529, the latest planet to be explored by the Terrans. From what the Mark II MALP, a small spherical probe capable of flying and crossing vast distances, had surveyed, the planet had an outpost on it, possibly Ancient in origin. Such discoveries were rare and the Terrans were still very much interested in acquiring anything the Ancients had built in the distant past, if for no other reason than to prevent others, like the Lucian Alliance, to get their hands on them.

"I'm so bored," Vala said in frustration.

"Vala, I know that we haven't done much in terms of fighting the bad guys lately, namely the Ori, but we are still the lead _exploration_ team, and I'm emphasizing the exploration part here. It is our job to go on new planets and see what's on them," Cameron explained.

"Come on Mitchell, you can't possibly tell me that you enjoyed the last five missions," Vala said, remembering having visited a lot of ruins, and not much else.

"I'm with Vala on this one," Ford said. "I still remember the adrenalin I felt while fighting Wraith on every mission we went. Now, the most exciting thing that could happen to us is to get jumped by an angry animal while walking through the woods."

"Ford, that wasn't adrenalin you were feeling. That was the Wraith enzyme flowing through your veins," Mitchell replied. "Besides, do you think that SG teams in Pegasus are doing much fighting these days?"

"Hey! I was kicking the Wraith even before getting hooked on the enzyme. But yes, you're probably right about the fighting part. There isn't much action on the ground these days, and if there is, they send the Army. Look at us! We are still wearing the old combat armors instead of the new Exoskeleton Combat Armor."

"You very well know that there are not enough of them to go around and Special Forces have the priority since they go in the most dangerous situations, doing who knows what."

"I'm telling you, SG teams are a dying breed," Peters said while checking his sensor readings.

"I wouldn't discard us just yet Peters. There'll always be need for exploration teams," Mitchell added.

"What about you Mitchell? As a pilot, you could get another posting aboard a ship, maybe even command one," Peters added.

"They already asked. Apparently, there's a shortage of officers. I'm still considering though," Mitchell said.

"Do you think they'd get me command of a ship?" Vala asked.

"If they want for the ship to get sold on the black market, sure, why not?" Mitchell said.

"You hurt me Mitchell. In these last two years, I've been an exemplary member of this team," Vala replied.

"That you have Vala. Still, getting a ship is a completely different story," Mitchell said.

"Sir, I'm picking up some energy readings," Peters said, still looking at the little device in his hand.

"Energy readings? I thought the probe's sensors didn't detect anything?" Mitchell asked.

"They didn't, but now I'm detecting them, clear as day," Peters said.

Not more than five hundred meters in the distance, Mitchell could already see the outpost in the middle of a small clearing, completely surrounded by the forest. Even from here he could, with great certainty, say the small building was of Alterran design. Although, it did look pretty worn out, "Do you think something came online? Maybe the outpost sensed our presence?"

"I can't say for certain, but an outpost that didn't show up any readings, to power up because it sensed us from five hundred meters away, doesn't make a lot of sense," Peters said, thinking how if the outpost was able to sense them, it would mean the outpost had its sensors online, ergo the probe would have detected the energy used to power the sensors.

"Yeah, it doesn't make too much sense to me either, but that would mean someone inside that building powered something up after the probe had scanned the outpost," Mitchell said, noticing Ford already gripping his rifle a little tighter.

Together they proceeded further down the narrow path leading them straight for the clearing and the outpost in the middle of it. Finally having reached the outpost, they circled around it in search for the entrance. Directly on the opposite side from where they came, they finally found it, as well as something else.

"Sir, these are footprints, and not just one set of them," Peters said while crouching on the ground and examining the various footprints.

"All right. Peters, you are with me. Ford, Vala, stay here and watch the entrance while we check what's inside," Mitchell ordered.

Nodding in understanding, Cameron entered first, with Peters following closely behind. As they were moving through the first few corridors, still with no lights in them that would clearly indicate the outpost had been powered up, Cameron noticed more footprints in the settled dust on the floor. Moving further inside, Cameron soon heard the first sounds indicative of someone else being there. Silently progressing toward where the voices were coming from, they reached a set of double doors with lights coming from inside. Cameron leaned against the wall near the doors before peaking inside to see whose voices they were hearing. To his astonishment, he immediately recognized the people inside. They were Aschen, three of them.

Scrutinizing the situation for a while longer, Cameron was more than certain that these people were not armed, or at least they were not carrying any weapons on them at the moment. They were checking one of the consoles in the room and by now he was more than certain these people were scientists trying to uncover the mystery of this place. Talking with Peters for a second, the two of them nonchalantly walked inside the room with their TR-1 rifles pointed at the Aschen.

It didn't take long for the Aschen to notice the two people that had just entered. One of them immediately looked at the nearby table with, what Cameron believed to be, a gun on it. The man started moving toward the table with the clear intention of grabbing the gun.

"Ah-ah! Not so fast!" Cameron said, pointing the rifle at the man who moved, which resulted in the man freezing in place.

There was no way to reach the weapon before getting riddled with bullets. And the Aschen knew it.

With the man stopped, Cameron continued. "This is awkward, wouldn't you say?"

While no Aschen responded to Cameron's question, Peters took the liberty of grabbing the weapon on the table and to look around to see if there were more. He found another one on another console, taking that one as well. The Aschen were now definitely disarmed.

"If the three of you could please move against that wall, I would really appreciate it. And no sudden moves, alright," Mitchell ordered to the three Aschen who complied with his orders. "So, can some of you start telling me what you're doing here?"

"We found this station a few days ago. We were trying to power it up when you came," one of the Aschen replied.

"Is there more of you on the planet or just you three?" Cameron asked.

"We are alone," the Aschen replied.

Mitchell noticed the Aschen having hesitated for a second, possible indication the man was lying, but he couldn't be certain. "Peters, what do you have there?"

Peters was examining the console the Aschen had been working on, disgusted at the way they had butchered the thing. From what he could tell, the Aschen were trying to bypass the security system that allowed initialization of the console only by someone with the ancient gene, and apparently they had succeeded, at least in part. Touching the console with his hand, the same came fully active. It didn't take long for the main display on the wall in front of it to come online as well.

This made the Aschen in the room look curiously at him. How did the console react to him so quickly while they had to spend an entire day trying to achieve the same?

"How did you activate the system so easily?" one of the Aschen asked in puzzlement.

"Magic," Cameron replied, receiving a strange glare from all three Aschen in the room.

In the meantime, Peters was accessing the system to see what this outpost purpose was. It didn't take long to get the information he wanted on the display in front of him. "This is some sort of research station. I still don't know for what though, but from the last log entry I know the station was last accessed almost nine thousand years ago."

The Aschen again looked perplexed while looking at the screen showing some strange symbols they had never seen before. Even more since the man was apparently able to read them without too much trouble. "You can read this language?" again, the same Aschen as before asked.

"Guys, we have been doing the galaxy exploration routine for quite some time now. We picked up a few things here and there," Cameron said. "Now that I've answered a few of your questions, you could return the favor by answering a few more of mine."

"Your answers were far from satisfactory. I don't feel obligated to answer to any question you may have," the same Aschen replied.

"My answers don't have to be satisfactory to get answers from you, and the reason why is because I'm holding the gun and you aren't," Mitchell replied.

"From what we know of your kind, I am more than certain you won't use the weapon you are pointing at us since we are unarmed, and we are also aware that you don't use torture in your interrogations. So, your implied threat has no merits whatsoever," the Aschen replied.

Mitchell first looked at the Aschen and then at Peters who was smiling and shaking his head in disbelief. Returning his gaze at the Aschen, Mitchell replied. "Well, if that's the case, then we'll have to take you back home with us," Mitchell said, motioning for the three Aschen to start moving. As they began moving he turned and whispered to Peters. "Next time I'm taking a Goa'uld pain-stick with me in case we are in a similar situation. It's not fun if they know we won't hurt them. Maybe if they see the pain stick glow they will think differently."

"Yeah, and after what they did on Earth, they should not be so certain we won't use… ehm… different methods to extort information. They should be glad we have other methods that give better results in the first place. If not, I would have no problem shoving a pain-stick up their collective asses."

"Good point. Well, let's take those three to the Alpha Site," Cameron said.

"I could maybe stay here and see what this place is all about."

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea. There could be more Aschen on this planet."

"Even more so somebody should stay behind. When you get to the Alpha Site you can send reinforcements to secure the site. I won't be here alone for that long."

"All right. Stay here and try to figure out what this place does."

With Peters' small nod, Cameron took the three Aschen out of the outpost. Once reunited with the rest of SG-1 minus Peters, they went through the same woods they came through, slowly making their way back to the gate.

As they were less than two hundred meters from the gate, the gate began spinning. Cameron knew there was a good chance Terrania was calling to check out on their progress, but you never know. And in this particular instance it wasn't Earth the one calling.

The moment the gate opened, four Aschen came through the gate. The three Aschen with them noticed the new arrivals, quickly moving away from their captors in an attempt to escape. Cameron shot two of them with his zat gun in quick succession while Ford took out the last fleeing Aschen.

By now, the four Aschen that just came through the gate knew what was going on, quickly moving and finding some cover while shooting at the three members of SG-1. The team as well took cover behind a few boulders nearby, while returning fire.

"Mitchell, any idea how to take them out?" Vala asked while shooting back.

Mitchell thought about what to do. He quickly notified Peters of the situation they were in before replying back to Vala, "We need to flank them somehow. They can't keep cover from two sides. You two, be ready for suppression fire. I'll try to reach that tree line," Mitchell said while pointing to the few trees left of their current position. "Now!"

Vala and Ford, began sending streams of bullets in short bursts at the four Aschen hunkered down behind the DHD and the still connected gate, while Mitchell sprinted for the tree line. As one of the Aschen leaned to shoot at the still running Mitchell, Vala succeeded in hitting the man in the right shoulder. The Aschen fell to the floor in pain, but still alive. He quickly moved back behind cover in order to not get shot again.

"He made it!" Ford yelled, also noticing the three still capable of firing Aschen trying to change their positions in order to still retain full cover, even from Mitchell's new position.

Since the Aschen by now had realized who the biggest threat was, Mitchell came under constant fire. While under cover behind a tree, Mitchell leaned just enough to stick out his rifle in order to fire at one of the Aschen, the one behind the DHD. He couldn't cover his flank if he didn't want to take a bullet from Ford or Vala.

"Gotcha!" Mitchell said to himself as he managed to get a clean shot. Three against two was now a much better scenario that it had been at the beginning.

At least that was until from the still open gate a single probe exited at high speed. Vala and Ford, who were facing the gate, fired at the probe, but missed widely. It just came out of the gate too fast for them to be able to hit it.

The probe made a large turnaround, quickly coming at Vala and Ford from behind. Shooting at the approaching probe, they made its shield flare, but no hit managed to go through. On the other hand, the probe managed to hit Ford straight in his torso.

Vala watched as Ford fell onto the floor clutching his chest in pain. The armor had probably saved his life, but he was out of the fight, that was for certain.

As the probe climbed in altitude, probably preparing for another run, one of the Aschen shouted, "Surrender or the next time the probe passes over you it will be the last."

Mitchell looked at Vala who was trying to find out how bad Ford's wound was. Her expression was not inspiring any confidence. "Fine! We surrender," Mitchell shouted, nodding to Vala to drop her weapon.

As he did the same, both exited from their cover with their hands raised in clear surrender. The Aschen as well exited from their cover with the probe settling twenty meters above them. There was no way of winning this fight with the probe flying above their heads.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Tollana's Orbit  
**_stardate: 2694.43_

In orbit of the marvelous Terran colony sat the stolen Aschen warship. It had been brought here to be inspected, probed, dissected and whatnot with the clear intent of uncovering all the secrets it contained by the small battalion of diligent and tireless scientists. If they wanted to fight the Aschen efficiently, they needed to know what they were up against. And such knowledge would apparently not only help the Terrans, but the Jaffa as well.

Teal'c was beamed in in what he believed to be the engine room of the alien vessel, immediately noticing the familiar face of councilor Carter, as usual, immersed in her work; that of discovering the technology the Aschen were using on their warships.

"CouncilorCarter, what was so important that you wanted to speak with me so urgently," Teal'c said as he stopped next to her.

"Hi Teal'c. I wanted to show you something," Sam said, pulling some schematics on the Aschen display on the console in front of her. "Do you see these schematics? Are they familiar to you?"

Teal'c looked at what the display was showing, "These are very similar to the schematics of our Naquadah reactors aboard our Ha'taks."

"That's right. You see, it seems the Aschen have assimilated a lot of technologies from the Ha'tak they captured from Gerak and then improved upon them. I must say, they have done a pretty great job on most of the systems. The only thing they didn't take from the Ha'tak are the weapons, but everything else like power generation, shields, sensors, hyperdrive and sublight propulsion has been taken from the captured Ha'tak and improved upon."

Teal'c still looked at the various schematics scrolling on the display in front of him, "I agree. Most of these schematics have only minor changes compared to our systems. Why are you showing me this CouncilorCarter?"

"I'm showing you this because, while we have no use for this, you can use it to greatly improve your ships. Many changes you would need to do are as you said only minor, but the benefits would not be so negligible."

"Does this mean you are willing to give us this technology?" Teal'c asked.

"Of course we are. We have no use for it. Our systems are too different, but yours could easily be modified. Something that could give you an edge against the Aschen or any other enemy you might have to face."

"Thank you CouncilorCarter. Any help is appreciated," Teal'c said, thinking how this could very well mean the difference between winning and losing the war against the Aschen. If these improvements were so easy to do, they could start upgrading their entire fleet immediately.

As Teal'c was musing about the repercussions, a bright flash of light deposited Jack near the two of them, "Hi guys… and ladies."

"Jack? What are you doing here? I know there are two of you now, but didn't you have some other obligation with the Tollans? And I know the other you is in the Pegasus galaxy," Sam said.

"The Tollans are none of my concern," Jack said, turning to face Teal'c straight in the eyes with a slight smile. "We did it T."

The usually stoic Jaffa's eyes widened, with his heartbeat skyrocketing through the roof. The slightly agape mouth was the final touch. There was only one thing O'Neill would have informed him of with such a sentence while looking at him the way he did, and he knew what it was. "You… you did it." Even his reply was unprepared.

"We did Teal'c," Jack said, moving closer and placing one hand on Teal'c shoulder. "Teal'c, the Jaffa will finally be free."

"Thank you O'Neill," Teal'c said, bowing his head in gratitude. "All Jaffa thank you."

"When did you find out?" Sam asked also ecstatic about the news.

"Just came back from Pegasus. They informed me the moment I set foot on Asura," Jack said, he as well very ecstatic. "Every newborn Jaffa will be free from the need of a symbiote or the need to use Tretonin just by the mother taking a simple injection before their birth. New generations of Jaffa will be free from the dependence the Goa'uld had forced them into."

"Once again the Jaffa have a debt of gratitude to repay to you. I must go inform the Council of this," Teal'c said still half lost by the news.

"Go-go!" Jack ushered the stunned Jaffa. Such news needed to be delivered the same instant.

Teal'c didn't know if he should go left or right, probably because there was no point in going in either direction. Jack as well understood that fact, quickly contacting Tollana to beam Teal'c in front of the gate. Seconds later, the Jaffa disappeared in a bright flash of light.

"I have never seen Teal'c stutter, not until now anyway," Sam said, smiling.

"Neither have I, but apparently there _are_ some things that can shake even the most stoic of all warriors," Jack replied. "Did you inform him of the upgrades the Jaffa could use?"

"I did, but he forgot to take them with him. I don't think the upgrades for their fleet are even near his mind right now."

"There's time. We can send somebody to deliver the goods easy enough," Jack said, before looking at Sam. "So, lunch?"

"Do you ever stop eating?" Sam asked with an eyebrow raised.

"I do. If not, how would I start? Besides, I sleep five hours a day. I need the calories," Jack replied.

"Fine, let's go; I'm done here anyway. I also have something to show you back on Earth," Sam replied before contacting Tollana in order to be beamed down to the planet.

"What?"

"You'll have to wait 'till we are back on Earth."

"Can't you just tell me?"

"Nope," Sam said with a mischievous smile.

"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"

"Yup."

"Oh, come on! We are going to eat first. I want to know now!" Jack whined.

"Nope."

"Would I at least like it?"

"Yup."

"Now you have to tell me!"

"Nope."

"That's torture you know that, and torture is illegal even for prisoners of war."

"I don't think any court would punish me for this."

Jack shrugged. Apparently there was no chance of getting it out of her, not before getting back on Earth. The two of them disappeared in a flash of light, leaving the other scientists in the engine room to continue working on the Aschen ship.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**_stardate: 2694.73_

Since the moment the Terran Alliance had been created, Sam's way of doing her job had changed drastically. She could still remember how it was before when she did research _the old way_. First she needed to make heads or tails of the theory behind whatever she wanted to make, usually involving more scientists to check the various theories and mathematical proofs that in fact it was possible. Then, she needed to make the schematics, again by involving many times more people in the project, only to be followed by massive simulations to check that everything was feasible, sometimes lasting even for months. Once this whole process was done and everything looked fine, the phase where she needed to build a prototype would begin. This of course involved contacting the people upstairs to ask for funding which, once granted, would be diverted to some company that could make the actual parts, usually with more than one contractor needed to build everything. This phase as well would usually last several more months only to, on many occasions, get the stuff she ordered built wrong, or with some pieces missing. It was a nightmare that could last up to six months even for the easiest of projects.

Now, things were different. Now she would get into her lab and immediately start building the prototype virtually with the help of some intelligent software, giving her feedback and ideas on how to improve the design. Once done, the program would check the mathematical theory behind it to see if it was after all possible or if it was pure science fiction, immediately running tons of simulations in a matter of hours to check everything. And with a few more corrections suggested by the system, she would usually be done with the whole design. The next part was even better, because her lab could easily build whatever she wanted that wasn't larger than a house, right inside her lab in a moment with the help of the matter converters she had at her disposal. From six months, a project could now be done in mere days, sometimes even in a few hours. It was a dream come true for any scientist on Terrania, and it wasn't strange at all that scientists from all over the world were flocking on the small island as they did.

"So what is it?" Jack asked for the umpteenth times.

"Would you chill for a minute!? We'll be in my lab in a second," Sam replied, annoyed at the constant bantering from a very impatient Jack. Actually, deep down, she liked seeing him squirm like that.

Making the last few hundred meters to her lab, the both of them entered inside, immediately focusing on the large… _thing _in the middle of the room. It was more than five meters in length.

Jack looked at the thing, then looked at Sam puzzled, then looked back at the thing again. He slowly moved in front of it. Since Sam, apparently, wasn't about to just tell him what it was, he started examining it in order to guess what it could be. "Well, nice design that's for sure… smooth surface… definitely post-postmodern influence I would say, but with a touch of old school, at least if the sharp corners are any indication. The author used hard strokes to give it a… Ok, what is it?"

"It's a bomb."

Jack suddenly stopped _petting_ the bomb, making a few quick steps back for good measure, "Carter! Next time you start with _that_! I could have spilled some coffee, again!"

"I know. That's why it doesn't have a warhead inside."

"Oh, good thinking. So, why is this bomb so special?"

"Well, it's not a bomb actually. It's more a long range missile," Sam explained.

"Long range? How Long?"

"Long."

"Carter!"

"Two light years."

"That's… long. How can it…"

"It has an FTL drive built in, the same as our probes. Combined with a small fusion reactor and a built-in cloaking device, this thing can hit anything before anyone even knows what happened. And it can house the Gate Buster warhead, or whatever else of that or smaller size."

"Nice! Why not hyperdrive?"

"Because, most races can detect the hyperspace window opening and that would preclude any surprise attack. Plus, the size would have to be bigger."

"Makes sense. So, how did you come up with this?"

"You told me you wanted to nuke the Aschen with the biggest bomb we can make so…"

"Carter, I wasn't being literal."

"Why not? From images of the Aschen system we know they have a lot of shipyards in orbit of their planet. With this we can hit them before they can raise their shields and without risking our ships going against their planetary defenses."

"Actually, that _is _a good idea. Think the others will go for it?"

"You mean the Council? Yeah, I think they will. After what the Aschen pulled on Earth, I don't see anyone losing any sleep about nuking a few Aschen shipyards. Besides, we need to show them they are not safe."

"Good point. Nice work Carter. Did you come up with anything else and that doesn't involve time travel."

"A few things," Sam replied, giving him an annoyed look, "The first six automated cargo ships have been built. We will use them to transport Trinium from the mines to here, Tollana and Terra Nova."

Jack knew about the new transport ships. It was a strange design, but he could see the benefits. The thing was wider and taller than what its length was. This was because the ship could be split in the middle, where up to twenty wagons could be attached. It wasn't strange at all they were calling it the train-ship. With the advent of these cargo ships that could very easily be built, they would solve their problem of transferring the various materials they were mining all around the galaxy, freeing warships and the gates that had been used so far. Even the captains didn't like being used to ferry Naquadah or Trinium ore.

"Nice job Carter. With the increase in the number of shipyards, we'll need the materials, and Paul will finally chill a little."

"Chill? Why does he need chilling?"

"Because the last time I went to his office he threw a stapler at me. I barely dodged the thing."

"What did you do?"

"Why do you always assume _I _did something?"

"Come on, spill it out. What did you do?"

"Alright, maybe it wasn't the best idea to tell him that he needs to send another shipment of Trinium to Tollana after only two days that he sent one, but still… a stapler?"

"Jack, he's not a magician."

"Well… he could have fooled me, but the point of the story is his need to chill… and the stapler."

"Well, with the new cargo ships maybe he'll have the chance."

"I hope so," Jack said, looking around not knowing what else to say.

"Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are you still here?"

"Because the moment I step back into my office, Walter is gonna send me back to Asura."

"So?"

"I don't feel like going. I just came back."

"Jack, you came back because of Teal'c, but you actually didn't do anything on Asura that you were supposed to do."

"Why can't my other me go?"

"Because he's on New Tollana, probably bitching about why he had to go there instead of you. Would you have rather liked to go to New Tollana?"

"No."

"There you have it. You got the better job."

"I just thought that, since there are two of us now, I'd actually have more free time, you know. And not having double the workload."

"Jack, there_ are _two of you now."

"So what? That doesn't mean we have to do double the work."

"It kinda does."

"Ah, you see, that's unfair."

"It kinda isn't."

"So, lunch?"

"We've just been there!"

"Oh, right."

Sam looked at Jack who did stop talking, but he was still not moving, "GO!"

"Alright-alright, I'm going. No need to yell."

"I'm not sure about that."

Jack sighed, before turning and finally leaving Sam's lab. Towards where, Sam wasn't sure.

Sam turned back to the main console, before pushing a few buttons. The missile in the room disappeared and instead of it, two holographic representations of a Cylon appeared. She walked in front of one of them.

"Disassemble," she said.

The first hologram, the one she was standing in front of, broke apart, showing the various pieces that made the Cylon inner systems. As she looked at it, she thought how this was a great work of engineering, and it even wasn't the latest Cylon model as far as she knew. Apparently this was the model before the Cylon war had even begun.

By touching the head of the holographic Cylon, next to it appeared a much larger hologram of that part. She had replaced the central processing unit and the entire software without even thinking twice. The Colonials had created a truly dangerous thing, and all only to make their life easier. Of course she understood the idea of creating a work force or even a soldier to fight instead of them, but they went so far as to give these things complete autonomy. Her idea instead was to give them the bare minimum of intelligence, with all command level functions given through a neural interface from an operator.

Although Jack had asked for only one prototype, Sam was working on two of them. The reason why she did that was twofold. For one, the first model could be used in many scenarios. It could be used like a foot soldier or for heavy lifting. The Terran shipyards and mining sites had beaming technology and androids that precluded any need to use the heavier Cylons, but many times when off world, they didn't have the luxury of simply beaming materials or supplies where they needed to go and often they needed to carry that stuff all by themselves through treacherous terrain.

The second model would not be used as a worker or as a mass produced foot soldier for the simple fact that it was too expensive to build so many of them. The second prototype had massively been changed, from the materials it used, sensor suit, servo motors and the generator that powered it. While the first model had a rechargeable battery and it was made mostly of steel, with no advanced sensors, the second model would have a small Naquadah generator, it would be made from carbon nanotubes and Trinium, as well as having an energy dispersive layer to protect it from energy weapons. Furthermore, the new servo system would allow unparalleled strength, speed, and agility, even though it weighed half a ton. The sensors would also allow it to detect anyone or anything with an energy signature in a much larger radius.

Since this model would cost almost the same as twenty of the lesser models, and since it used materials that they needed for other purposes, Sam knew they would be rare, but a few of them would certainly see the light of day. She still didn't know how to make a shield to encompass them. The same problem they were having with their exoskeleton suits.

With the prototypes almost complete, she now needed to spend a few more days writing various subroutines that would allow the Cylons to follow certain protocols in combat and out of it. All Cylons that were not to be used in combat, would have a prime directive that even if ordered to do something, anything that could result in harm to a person, they would simply stop and ask for new instruction.

At this point she'd very much like if she could call Rodney, but that wasn't possible. She wondered what happened to him and Sheppard. It has been months since the two of them ascended and no matter how annoying the man was, she still missed him; she missed both of them.

Sam sighed, deciding that she should find some other scientist from the many available on the base to help her write the code. Maybe Felger could help? Or maybe he would turn the Cylons against humanity. Maybe it was better if she found somebody else after all.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – P3X-529  
**_stardate: 2694.76_

Peters moved behind a large boulder the moment he heard the strange sound those damn Aschen probes made. It had been the third time already that one of those things had crossed paths with him, each time barely able to hide in time. There was simply no point in facing them in battle. Even if he could destroy one of them, the only thing he would accomplish was to alert others of his presence and since he was alone with no help anywhere on the planet, that wasn't a very appealing prospect.

An hour ago, he had received a short message from Mitchell, stating that they were under attack. After the short communiqué had ended, he had tried repeatedly to contact his team, but it had been to no avail. Knowing that it meant the team had been captured, or worse, he went to disable the Ancient outpost as best as he could without permanently damaging anything. He knew that, no matter how this whole ordeal would eventually turn out, in the end the Terrans would connect to the planet and send troops through. Hence his goal was to disable the outpost so the Aschen could not access anything in the meantime. The outpost could still turn out to be valuable after all. With the outpost disabled, he had left on his way to the gate, but he hadn't made it half way there when he had encountered the first of several probes canvasing the area.

As the probe made its way past his position, he waited a little longer before moving again. Crossing the last half a mile of the forest before the clearing where the gate was, Peters ducked behind yet another boulder. Looking at the gate in the distance, he could clearly see three probes circling around it as well as half a dozen armed Aschen. The fact that he wasn't seeing his team was of great concern to him, although, not seeing their bodies _was_ also a good sign. It probably meant they had been captured and taken off world. Not a very appealing prospect, but still better than the alternative.

Moving back inside the forest in order to find better cover, Peters settled down for the waiting part. There was nothing he could do alone against such overwhelming Aschen presence in front of the gate. The only thing he could do was to wait for HQ to make their scheduled check up call.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**_stardate: 2694.95_

Jack passed through the final doors before the gate's command center, walking near Walter who was diligently working on his station.

"Walter, what's up?" Jack asked, wishing Walter wouldn't remember about his still unfulfilled obligations on Asura.

"Nothing unusual sir. Although, SG-1 is scheduled to make contact in five minutes," Walter replied.

"Why wait? Let's give them a call." Anything just to postpone his trip.

"Yes sir," Walter replied, quickly inputting the necessary address to dial P3X-529.

Jack waited impatiently while the gate turned the usual seven times before forming the watery event horizon.

"SG-1, please respond," Walter said once the wormhole had been established.

It took a few moments before the reply came, "_HQ, this is Peters. I have a strong Aschen presence in front of the gate blocking my path. I request immediate reinforcements."_

With a nod Jack instructed Walter to start the necessary preparations to send troops through the gate before clicking his small earpiece, "Peters, this is Jack O'Neill. What happened son?"

"Two hours ago we went to the outpost, but found out the outpost had been powered. We went inside to investigate and found three Aschen trying to make one console to work. We quickly apprehended them and Mitchell and the rest of my team went back to the gate to take the prisoners back to the Alpha Site. I stayed behind inside the outpost to see what the outpost's purpose is. Not more than twenty minutes later, I received a message from Mitchell stating that they were under attack by Aschen forces. I'm now somewhere around a hundred meters from the gate, hiding in the woods."

"Understood Peters. Do you have a visual on the rest of your team?" Jack asked.

"Negative sir. There are three Aschen probes circling around the gate and six armed Aschen in front of it. I fear they have been taken off world sir."

"Understood. Reinforcements will be there shortly. Stay hidden until then."

"Acknowledged sir. I'll wait for reinforcements."

Jack deactivated his comm. device, turning toward Walter, "Walter, isn't the planet they were on one of the addresses _not_ from the Goa'uld Cartouche?"

"It is sir."

"So how do the Aschen know about the planet then?"

"I don't know sir. Maybe the Chinese?"

Jack thought about it, quickly coming to the same conclusion, "Of course, the Chinese knew all the addresses from before the Terran organization was even formed. Great! Now the Aschen know them too. Walter, do we have any ship in the vicinity of the planet? "

"Yes sir. One of our assault frigates is a thousand light-years from the planet," Walter replied without any delay.

Jack was startled. How could he know that without consulting the system? Did Walter know where every ship they had was at all times? "Good. Contact the ship with orders to change course for the planet."

"Yes sir."

Jack still looked at Walter quizzically, not sure how he could know that. Now, there was nothing else to do but to wait for the Special Forces to get ready and to storm through the gate.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**


	21. Rescue

**Author's note: **So, while reading yesterday this chapter, trying to find any grammar error, it came to me the brilliant idea to change a few lines I didn't particularly like. Why not. It would be maybe fifteen minutes tops.

Three hours later, I was still changing things, and the worst part was, I wasn't sure anymore if the chapter was sounding better or worse than before. Anyway, because of it I had to postpone the release of the chapter for one day.

Today I didn't go through it. I was afraid I would start changing things again, maybe even turning everything back as it was, and maybe even have to postpone it again. I wasn't about to do that. So, sorry if there are few errors here and there ;)

**Reviews:**

**Stormwolf3710:** Whatever my mind can imagine, Carter will make it a reality.

I do plan to always have SG teams, though it stands to logic things will have to change. I don't really see air force officers going around on foot to investigate new planets.

I always try to put some fun and silliness into the story, just to break the routine, and Jack's character is in line with such behavior.

The Goa'uld are mostly gone and I don't believe and entire civilization can survive – in the long run – if they need to take daily doses of Tretonin.

**Mojtaba13:**

Understanding the use of zats:

1. Logically, if two different methods (zatting them or shooting them) have the same desired effect (to incapacitate), then the method with the greater gain must be used (the ability to interrogate them later and gain intel)

2. Ethically, shooting unarmed scientists running away from you in the back, is simply wrong. They do not pose an immediate threat to you, so the use of deadly force is a simple and big no-no.

3. The Law. I'm not an expert on the military rules of engagement, but I do believe that shooting unarmed prisoners (they were prisoners at that point) in the back is against the rules, which means whoever kills them can be court martialed for such act.

Now, if the smart thing to do is to get prisoners to be interrogated, if the moral thing to do is to not shoot unarmed people in their backs, and if the only way to be certain you won't get court martialed for the unnecessary use of deadly force is to not kill them, then, shouldn't the real question be – Why _would _you want to kill them? What _other _reason would you have to kill them?

If you know, please let me know.

The part of the sentence with the so called insurgents getting killed every day, I really didn't get. It isn't a specific case enough for me to compare with what I wrote, and saying it happens every day doesn't mean much. People get killed every day, good and bad, people get robbed every day, and people get stuck in elevators every day too.

Something happening every day doesn't make it good or bad, or right.

**EvilTheLast:** The point is that the three people in the Ancient outpost were simple scientists, not part of their government or military, probably not very informed in current plots either, and definitely not knowing all the details of the war between them and the Terrans. So the only thing they can rely upon is the psychological study the Aschen did about the Terrans which says that, although very emotional creatures, they often behave like the do gooders of the galaxy (this is the condensed version). On the other side, the Terrans yes, they have three Aschen in front of them, but they also have three scientists who possibly haven't done anything illegal even by their own laws. Who's to say they are not three simple people with families and that have never in their life killed anyone or committed any other crime. Do you believe that only because they are Aschen, no matter of individual guilt, they should be punished for something their government has done? And if you still think that punishment should be dispensed to those that follow their government, try to read about Milgram's Experiment on Obedience to Authority and how he decided there was no need to test the Germans ;)

**Tamed Scoundrel:** Not sure if hostages would work with the Aschen. The Terrans would say - Let us go or we will – do what? And whatever it is that they threaten to do, the Aschen simply start shooting the next instant. There is more to gain from capturing SG-1 than from saving three of their scientists. They have enough of those back home.

It is said that DNA defines what we are and our experience defines who we are. I'm not certain that I completely agree – I do believe it is not that black and white – but I do believe that half a century of collected experience - that has formed Jack's character - cannot be discarded only half a year after Jack's genetic makeup has been changed. Also, and often, people use humor to alleviate the tension. The character of Jack was based on that. He was the kind of character that when Daniel explains to him his fear about the Ori, with the grave sense of impending doom, he replied – I'm hungry.

Last point, who says that all Alterrans has to be all serious and wise all the time? We don't have a large enough number of Alterrans from the show to define how their entire race behaved.

**HellsMaji:** Nope. It just means he's a very weird dude.

**Mayhem:** Thanks.

**Epi:** Yes, China's problem is at the end. Maybe I'll mention a few more things here and there.

Haley looks more like the physicist to me than a programmer; the same as Carter.

That's the idea. Gates smuggled and use as a back door.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – P3X-529  
**_stardate: 2695.76_

Peters watched the six armed Aschen facing the open gate. It had been that way for the past fifteen minutes, with no activity whatsoever. Even the probes that had been canvasing the area in search for him had returned in order to face whatever was about to exit through the gate. And he knew something would soon come out.

Not long after, a TT-X2 tank rolled out of the gate, quickly followed by one APC. The Aschen on foot and the probes in the air began shooting at the first vehicle – the one they had probably deemed the greatest threat - but the only thing the Aschen hit was a strong shield protecting it from harm.

Plasma repeaters quickly began barking plasma bolts back at the probes, while from the rear of the APC, a full squad of Terran Special Forces began exiting the vehicle. Concentrated fire from the tank quickly depleted the shields of the first probe, with the next hit blowing it to pieces. With the railguns on the APC barking bullets as well, a second probe followed the same faith shortly after.

Peters was still hidden behind a boulder, watching as the six Aschen began their retreat into the woods, probably hoping there at least the tank and APC would not be able to follow them. He also saw the squad of Special Forces taking position behind the DHD and both sides of the gate. They looked very determined to take care of the offending Aschen on foot.

Bullets hit three of the six Aschen even before they could find proper cover behind some trees, with the other three Aschen already squeezed behind three separate tree trunks, probably thinking they had at least for the moment found cover. It was time for Peters to disillusion them.

Peters pointed his rifle, aiming carefully at the closest of the three Aschen. Switching to single mode and with the help of the small scope embedded in the rifle, he carefully aimed to take a head-shot. With the trigger squeezed and the slight sensation of recoil, Peters watched the targeted Aschen fall to the ground. Quickly switching aim to the next Aschen, he noticed the Aschen was looking in his direction, with his gun already raised.

One Aschen would have to be enough.

Peters quickly dropped behind his cover, the next moment feeling bolts of energy flying above his head. It had been just in time. He would have liked to hit at least another Aschen, but that hadn't happened. It also didn't matter. The important thing was to show the Aschen they were surrounded, unable to find proper cover. The SFs would have to do the rest.

Colonel Pierce, seeing that even the last probe had been destroyed and how the two still alive Aschen were pinned down from both sides, instructed three other members from Team Alpha to follow him behind the APC. Instructing the APC to move in the direction where the three Aschen were hiding, they made their approach under cover up to the edge of the forest.

"Surrender, now!" Colonel Pierce yelled, motioning for his squad to stop firing.

There was no reply from the two still alive Aschen. Pierce already thought he would have to drop a few grenades to end this, but then he saw them slowly getting out from their cover and even more slowly dropping their weapons on the ground and raising their hands above their heads. Pierce and three other SFs from Alpha Team moved quickly, grabbing the three Aschen and pinning them to the ground. They were bound in matter of seconds.

Pierce saw Peters rushing past him and his men, not even saying a word, heading straight for the DHD. Once Peters reached it, he kneeled in front of it and opened its underside.

Pierce walked behind Peters, "What are you doing?"

"I'm connecting my tablet directly to the DHD to find the last few addresses that were dialed before the gate shuts down. We can expect more Aschen coming the moment we close the connection and we need to find out where they have taken the rest of my team."

"Good idea to find the last few addresses, but you don't need to worry about the gate from Terrania cutting the connection. The gate will stay open for as long as we need it to be."

"Oh, right. HQ has the power to do that. I forgot."

Pierce clicked his comm. unit, "HQ, this is Pierce. Site has been secured. You can send the troops."

"_Acknowledged Colonel."_

The next moment, two more APC, followed by a full platoon of Army troopers came through the gate. Without waiting, combat engineers began assembling some pieces taken out from the APC. They were mounting railgun emplacements in front of the gate for a warm welcome to whoever came through the gate once it closed.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**_stardate: 2696.32_

Inside the war room, Jack, the other Jack, Klaus and Anderson were discussing the recent engagement with the Aschen and what to do next.

"Alright, Peters is safe and we have the last five addresses that were dialed. Since one of those five is Earth, we need to check the other four if we want to find where they've taken our people," Jack said to the assorted group of people in the room.

"Yes, and the good thing is that the Aschen homeworld is not among the other four addresses," the other Jack said.

"Yeah, which is good since storming their homeworld wouldn't be feasible," the first Jack replied.

"I know that! That's why I mentioned it in the first place."

"I was just making it clear," the first Jack replied.

"Oh, you two! Would you please shut up?" Klaus yelled, fed up of those two always monopolizing the conversation. Sam's idea of placing them in separate galaxies wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Both Jacks looked at Klaus very much hurt, "Fine!"

"Good. I have already sent four spyships to those four planets, but from the addresses we can already infer the most probable candidate is PX5-337. It is the closest to the Aschen territory. Now, the question remains, do we send a probe through the gate or do we wait for the spyships to report back first?"

"If we send a probe through, it could tip them off and they could decide to move our people to someplace else. We cannot risk it," Anderson replied.

Klaus looked at both Jacks who wanted to say something, but were struggling to stay quiet, "What?"

"Can we speak now?"

Klaus shrugged, "Sure, why not?"

After a small nod from Jack number two, giving consent, Jack number one began explaining, "Well, if this one planet is the most probable candidate I think we should send a probe anyway to see what they have there," Jack number one replied.

"And what if the defenses are too strong to go there through the gate? The Aschen can simply leave while we bring ships there."

"It's possible. It is also possible they are not even there anymore and that all this planning is pointless, but let's assume this planet is some kind of Aschen outpost. If we dial the planet and keep the connection open for as long as it takes, we can at least block them from escaping through the gate."

"And what if they have ships in orbit?" Klaus asked.

"That is something we can't prevent anyway. Besides, from the moment they haven't heard back from their people on PX2-529, they must know something is wrong, which means they already know we are coming, no matter if we send the probe or not."

"Alright, you have a point there," Klaus said.

"Also, if the probe finds the gate is not protected adequately we could free our people even before our ships reach the planet, or at least we could maybe sneak a cloaked puddle jumper through. The jumper could then fly in orbit and we can get some intel on what they have in terms of number of ships there," Anderson said.

"Alright, I will dispatch a few ships to that system in advance. No reason for them to stay here idle anyway. They can change course later easily enough if that's not the planet where our people are," Jack said.

With the rest of the people nodding in complete agreement, they went their separate ways in order to start the rescue mission to save SG-1.

This Aschen were starting to be a real problem.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aschen Council**_  
stardate: 2696.53_

"The Terrans are remarkably resilient to the mind probing," one of the Aschen in the room said.

"Were we able to extract anything from them so far?"

"Little. What we do know is that Earth _has_ been infected by the virus and that they are trying to find a cure. The Terrans we have captured seem to believe they will succeed in finding a cure in the next few weeks."

"This is not possible. How can they find a cure so quickly?"

"Still unknown, but I'm certain we will eventually succeed in extracting that information as well. It will just take more time for the mind probe to get the information out. There's also another piece of information that we have extracted and that is of some concern, but we still need to check its validity."

"What piece of information?"

"If their memories are accurate some of their people on Earth are not dying. Children are somehow being cured. One of the captured Terrans has a vivid memory of a news feed showing children miraculously getting cured."

"How?"

"As I said, the Terrans are fighting the mind probing. We still need to check the validity of what the mind probe has extracted from them before we can be certain."

"What about other information? Like their strength and allies."

"We have confirmation that the Terrans are part of an Alliance of four races spread across several galaxies."

"Galaxies? Are you certain?"

"The data extracted has an eighty percent certainty of being truthful. The greatest concern from what we discovered is the Edenian race."

"The Edenians? Never heard of them."

"The Edenians are a race of advanced humans led by an Alterran. They are the ones who have formed the Guardian's Order."

"Led by an Alterran? Aren't the Alterrans the race they call the Ancients? And aren't they extinct?"

"Apparently, one lives, and he's the one who has created the Edenian race over ten thousand years ago."

"This isof great concern."

"Maybe in time we will be able to learn more from the prisoners, but for now that is all we were able to extract."

While the small group of Aschen thought about the revelations they were getting, another Aschen walked in the room, "We have lost contact with our people on the planet where we captured the Terrans. We are unable to dial the planet."

"Did you try for longer than 38 minutes?"

"We did. The gate still won't connect."

"It means the gate has been buried or someone else is constantly dialing; the Terrans probably," one of the Aschen said thoughtfully before turning to face the Aschen that had just entered the room. "Keep trying. Sooner or later, we will get a connection."

The man nodded, leaving the room.

"We need to assume the Terrans have captured our people."

"We also need to assume they will be able to extract everything our people know."

"I agree, which means they know where we have taken their people. We need to send reinforcements to our forward base."

"Shouldn't we transfer the prisoners?"

"I am more concerned with losing the base than the prisoners. It is imperative we not let the forward base fall into their hands."

"As far as I'm aware, we have only one ship in that system. Whatever the Terrans decide to send, one cruiser is far from being enough to efficiently protect the base."

"Then we need to send more ships. Also, the people we've captured should be enough to deter the Terrans from simply bombarding the base. They will most certainly want to free them," one of the Aschen present said, not fully understanding the Terrans' way of thinking, but knowing it would play to their advantage. Why risk so much for only three people?

"How many ships can we send?"

"Twelve cruisers are stationed near our forward base. They should be able to reach the planet before the Terrans do."

"And what if the Terrans have sent a large fleet that even twelve cruisers cannot win against? They still have superior ships. It is the reason why we are not facing them directly."

"Then, if that is the case, we use the backup plan."

"Is that wise?"

"Do we have a third option?"

"I suppose we do not."

"Then we agree."

The rest of the Aschen in the room nodded in agreement.

* * *

**Large Magellanic Cloud – Borealis  
**_stardate: 2696.93_

Young jogged from his office on the top level of the command center to the, no more than fifty feet apart, control room. "What is it?"

"The long range sensors have detected a ship on course for this system sir."

"Do we know what kind of ship?"

"Unknown sir, but it can't be very large. Otherwise, we would have detected it earlier."

"How long until it reaches us?"

"Less than five minutes sir."

"All right. Cloak the city."

The operator quickly pushed a few buttons, with the city slowly disappearing without leaving any trace it was ever there, "City's cloaked."

Young nodded, waiting patiently for whatever ship was about to reach them.

"Hyperspace window opening. The ship seems to be a small Leptinian scout ship. No more than thirty meters in length, sir."

"Borealis," Young called to the thin air.

"Yes Captain?" Borealis replied, the moment her hologram appeared next to him.

Young made a grimace the moment he heard the word 'captain'. He felt like he'd been demoted. The truth was that all ranking officers and enlisted under the purview of the Terran Space Fleet were changing their ranks to those in the Navy, and the rank of captain in the Navy is the equivalent of colonel in the Air Force. After the rank of captain, there was only rear admiral, so it wasn't a demotion, but to young it felt differently. "Please launch a squadron of drone fighters under cloak. They are to follow the unknown ship closely, but they are not to engage. Only if there is indication the city has been discovered are they to engage the ship and destroy it."

"Of course, Captain," Borealis replied.

On one of the piers, massive doors on the deck begun to open until there was enough space for the drone fighters, no more than ten meters in length, to exit the hangar, one after the other. They all cloaked even before leaving the city's cloaking field, quickly speeding upwards towards the sky and further into space.

By now, the Leptinian ship had already passed one of the moons on a straight course for the planet on which the city floated. Once it reached the planet's orbit, it opened several ports, and the same small craft that had previously attacked the Daedalus exited, speeding downward into the atmosphere. Six of the cloaked drone fighters turned and followed the six smaller craft, while the rest continued keeping the larger craft at arm's length.

"Six Leptinian shuttles have entered the planet's atmosphere. They have spread in different directions. I would say they are going for the various landmasses on the planet," the operator informed Young.

"They are probably canvasing the planet to see if it is suitable as breeding ground."

"In that case, I do not believe they will find this planet capable of sustaining a large population," Borealis replied. "Except from sparse sea life, the planet has no other sources of food."

It was true. The planet had been picked for that exact reason. The planet was almost completely covered with a massive ocean, with a few sparse and small continents that had no animal life on them. If they could remain hidden, once the Leptinians were done with their survey, they would probably never return to this planet.

The survey lasted for another hour. In that time, one of the small Leptinian shuttles flew only a few hundred miles from the cloaked city, but even then there hadn't been any indication the vessel detected their presence. Shortly after, the six ships climbed into space, docking with the larger scout ship. The next moment, the ship left orbit, speeding into hyperspace.

"Well, that went as good as it could have. Borealis, the drone fighters can return now."

"They are on their way as we speak, Captain," Borealis replied politely.

"Good, when are our guests scheduled to arrive?" Young asked.

"In sixty three minutes, Captain."

"Thank you Borealis. Please inform me the moment they step through the gate, and inform Zelenka that I need to speak with him," Young said before leaving the control room on his way to his office.

Twenty minutes later, Zelenka entered his office.

"Captain. You asked to see me?" Zelenka replied.

"Yes, I did. Please take a seat," Young said, waiting for the scientist to sit down. "Dr. Zelenka, I was wondering about one thing. I don't know if you are aware, but less than half an hour ago, a Leptinian scout-ship dropped out of hyperspace and a few of their shuttles canvased the planet, probably to see if it were suitable for colonization."

"Has the city been discovered?"

"No Doctor, it wasn't, and they will probably never return, but I like to be on the safe side on this."

"What did you have in mind, Captain?"

"Is it possible to build several orbiting defense platforms here on Borealis?"

"Well, we have the materials and the facilities to build them, but you probably want them to be able to stop a large number of small craft like the ones the Leptinian use."

"Yes I do. I know that every orbital platform we have designed so far has some kind of anti-capital ship weapon in it, be it plasma cannons or plasma beams, it doesn't matter, we don't need either of them. But we need a lot of fast firing low yield guns placed on them if they are to be useful against the Leptinians."

"Yes, I understand what you want, and although we don't have any designs of something similar ready, I can probably come up with an efficient design in a few days at the most. The only problem is that for deploying them in orbit, we would need the help of a ship and their beaming systems. I wouldn't want to waste space and resources on building the weapon platforms with large enough sublight engines to take them into orbit."

"Of course not Doctor, and it won't be a problem. Once we have enough of them constructed, I'll ask Captain Caldwell to make a short trip here and help us out," Young said the same moment as Borealis appeared next to Zelenka.

"Captain Young, the Tikal ambassador and Captain Caldwell have just arrived through the gate."

"Thank you Borealis. Please, escort them to the conference room. I'll be there shortly," Young replied.

Borealis nodded before disappearing into thin air.

"Doctor, would you like to be present with me in the conference room? There might be some questions you can answer better than I could."

"Of course Captain," Zelenka replied, getting up.

The two of them quickly moved to the conference room where Caldwell and Ambassador Olek were already seated.

"Ambassador Olek, Captain Caldwell, thank you for coming," Young said, noticing the same expression on Caldwell's face when he said his rank.

"Thank you for having me here. It is remarkable what you have built," the ambassador replied while looking around, especially through the large window in the conference room.

"Thank you. This is one of the greatest achievements the Ancients have ever created and we were able to restore it to her formal glory. But let's discuss now the reason why we are all here. Could you please update me on the latest in the war against the Leptinians?"

"Well, ever since you came in this galaxy and joined us in the fight against the Leptinians, the situation has greatly improved. We have noticed a slight drop in Leptinian raids at our remaining three worlds, something that has given us the much needed breathing space to recuperate the losses and even increase our fleet and orbital defenses. I can't even remember the day when our planetary defenses were at such level."

"I'm glad to hear that. What is the prediction on when we will have a decisive edge against the Leptinians?"

"Unfortunately, I don't think I can make such prediction."

"I'm sorry? I thought you said the war was going great?"

"It is, in terms of number of raids against our worlds and the increase in fleet strength. We were also able to successfully target a few of their worlds and even to engage and destroy several of their beehive ships, but I'm not certain we have made any real progress in the war."

"Why do you say that?" Young asked, not understanding.

Caldwell picked up to answer the question. "Captain Young, from the time I have spent in this galaxy, I was able to learn one thing. We have no clue how many Leptinians there are or how many planets they have under their control. In these few months, we came across dozens of planets they use for breeding, and we are more than certain they have even more planets under their control that have some installation on them, like shipyards, mining facilities or forward bases of operation."

"The Captain is correct in his assessment," the ambassador continued. "You must understand that the Leptinians are not like us. They don't have citizens and then a small percentage of their population belonging to the military. They are all military or they serve to provide the military with whatever they need. We are talking about a race numbering in the billions with the only purpose to build more ships and to destroy anything in their path that tries to stop them."

"I see. Well, then there is only one way to proceed in this war, isn't it?" Young said.

"You mean, we need to cut the head off," the Ambassador added.

"Yes, I do think that. If they can grow in numbers that fast, and if they have numerous worlds with installation on them, the only way to give them a substantial blow, a blow that will give them pause, is if we strike at their heart. We need to strike at the planet you think controls the rest of them."

"I agree, but the problem is that we don't know where that planet is," Caldwell added.

"How is the canvasing of the galaxy going?"

"Slowly. This galaxy is only 14 000 light-years in diameter, but such relatively small galaxy holds approximately 500 million star systems."

"So searching system by system is like searching for a needle in a haystack."

"Exactly. I think our best bet is to follow one of their ships if we can and see if it takes us to their home world. But so far it looks like no ships ever goes there, at least those that we have followed."

Next to Captain Young, Borealis appeared with a worried expression on her face. "Captain Young, the long range sensors have detected several ships on a direct course towards us."

"What? What kind of ships?" Young asked in puzzlement. He knew no Terran or Tikal ships were scheduled to come here.

"The sensor readings suggest it is a group of six Leptinian beehive ships and one we haven't seen yet."

"How long until they reach us?"

"Eighteen minutes."

"This doesn't look like a coincidence. How could they have known we are here?" Caldwell asked.

Young sighed, "Less than an hour ago, a Leptinian scout ship entered the system and performed scans of the planet. The city was cloaked the whole time and the planet is far from being perfect for one of their breeding planets. We were certain they didn't detect us since they left after they finished scanning the planet, and I don't think they were able to detect the city through our cloak."

"This planet is not something the Leptinians would ever consider as one of their breeding planets," the ambassador replied. "Are you certain they could not detect your city under cloak?"

"No I don't think they could. If they were able to detect the city while cloaked, then they would have been able to detect the Daedalus when we nuked their shipyards too."

"I don't know what else could be the reason for them to come here, again," Young added, but then he saw the slight frown on Borealis' face. "What is it Borealis?"

"There is a small probability that the Leptinians are capable of detecting the high frequency subspace band we use to transfer energy to our drone fighters. Since telepathy works through subspace and the Leptinians have an incredible ability to communicate telepathically at great distances, there is a chance they could sense the transfer of energy through subspace, even at such high frequencies. Although, I must admit I do not exactly know how."

"If they were able to detect the exact location of the city, cloaking it again shouldn't be a smart move. They could attack us the moment they enter orbit," Young said. "Bring the ENI Generators to full power and connect all three ZPMs. The moment they enter the system, you are to raise the shield."

"Yes Captain."

The group of people continued talking about the impending visit of the Leptinians with what they were predicting would be a sizeable force. The remaining minutes until their arrival had quickly passed.

The six large beehive like ships entered the system, in less than two minutes reaching orbit above the city. Scores of small spheres began exiting the ships, plummeting straight down into the planet's atmosphere clearly on a course for the city.

As they reached weapons range, thousands of small beams began hitting the city's raised shield.

"I now understand what you meant when you said they would obscure the sky. There are so many of them," Caldwell said to the Tikal's ambassador.

"Yes, it is the same tactic as the one they used when they targeted our planets. Will the shield hold?" the ambassador asked, since he couldn't feel any shaking from the many beams hitting it.

Young simply looked at Borealis who understood what he wanted from her, "The shield is under constant stress, but there is no immediate risk of the shield being overwhelmed. I have calculated that it would take several weeks of intense fire from their ships to be able to deplete the ZPMs, and the ENI generators are also helping diminish the stress on them."

"How many of them are there?" Young asked, since it was difficult to count them all.

"There are over twenty thousand Leptinian spheres, but they are unable to fire all at once. There is simply too many of them for them all to get a clear shot without risking hitting one of their own."

"Do we have enough drones to hit them all?" Caldwell asked Young, knowing that the only offensive weapon the city had were the drones.

Before Young could say anything, Borealis stepped in, "We have five thousand drones, which should be enough to destroy them all, but I am not certain such use of the drones is advisable."

"Please explain." Young asked.

"From what I understand, the Leptinians are capable of building one of their spheres incredibly fast and the construction materials used are much cheaper and more abundant that the materials the drones are made of."

"In short, you think that a drone is more expensive than one of their craft," Young concluded.

"Yes, and if we add the possibility that this is only the first wave of what could be coming our way, the depletion of our drone reserves is not advisable."

"Alright, so we should use drones only if we have no other choice. But what other choice do we have? Can we leave the planet?"

"Unadvisable," Borealis replied, quickly continuing. "The city's liftoff procedure is the most vulnerable moment of the city. Massive amounts of energy must be diverted to the inertial dampeners and the sublight engines, and the Leptinians might decide to ram us with their beehives during such procedure. I do not believe the shield would be able to sustain such an assault while lifting off the planet."

"Well, I don't know if the Leptinians would ram us, but I also don't think we should take the chance of finding out. I think we are out of options on how to solve this without reinforcements coming to the rescue," Young said.

"I agree. We need to call our fleet and face them in battle, no matter the cost. Then we can use the drones in a supporting role," Caldwell said, not liking it, but what else could they do. "There's also the chance of more Leptinians coming here before we can bring the brunt of our fleet."

Zelenka had spent this entire time in silence, leaving the military strategists to think of a way on how to solve the predicament they were facing. From what he could understand, they wanted to engage the enemy or leave. The only two options they thought at their disposal were strike at them or a strategic retreat. How very military of them, but they weren't thinking of another, simpler, solution. "We sink the city."

The three other people in the room, as well as Borealis, turned to look at the diminutive scientist. Young was the first to ask. "What?"

"We can sink the city. It is impossible for their small craft with their even smaller beams to penetrate hundreds of meters of water."

"And what then?" Caldwell asked.

"And then we have virtually unlimited time to think of what to do next. With three ZPMs and the ENI generators, the city could stay for thousands of years under water, even without the ability to get more resources from Earth through the gate, which we also have."

"Good thinking Zelenka. Our first priority is to keep the city safe," Young said turning to Borealis. "Borealis, please initiate the necessary procedures to sink the city to the ocean's floor."

"Related procedures have been initiated, Captain," Borealis replied.

The city slowly began dropping, with the water rising above the city's ground level. Quickly, the entire city was under water, with the fire from the many Leptinian spheres stopped from hitting the city's shield. A minute later, with a slight thud, the city settled on the bottom of the ocean.

The city was safe from the Leptinian attack for the moment. Now it was only a matter of finding a way of clearing the large Leptinian infestation in the system. Somehow, nobody believed the Leptinians would simply leave.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Orbit above Aschen Base  
**_stardate: 2697.13_

The captain of the lonely Aschen cruiser stood on the bridge awaiting orders from the ground. He had been informed of the possibility of the Terrans coming here, which meant the ship was on high alert, with its shields and weapons already powered and ready. The instructions were to immediately engage any ship that entered the system. The captain didn't like it. Only one ship against whatever the Terrans decide to bring here, but the captain thought that with the high readiness he had put the ship into, there was at least a chance of them hitting the Terrans before they could get their bearings right. And he also needed to keep them at bay before reinforcements arrived, which should happen in the next ten minutes or so.

A beeping sound informed the captain that a hyperspace window had been detected only light-seconds from their current position. As he watched through the frontal view, his face contorted in the usual 'holy cow' expression anyone who for the first time saw the more than three kilometers long aurora class warship exit hyperspace in front of him.

'_Screw this!'_

With unseen speed, the Aschen ship opened a hyperspace window of its own straight ahead, not even bothering with the direction where the voyage would take them. The only thing missing was roadrunner's _'Beep-Beep'_ sound before the ship sped inside hyperspace faster than a bullet.

"Holy Cow!" the captain of the Aurora warship shouted after seeing the Aschen ship flee, "I've never seen a ship leave that fast."

The aurora has become the terror of the Milky Way galaxy to any race that would see the ship. And that was only because of the size. If they really knew what the Terrans had put _under the hood _of the monstrosity, they would probably crap their pants even before being able to move. The ship had been upgraded with the latest tech the DN-306 had except for the Antiproton Beam weapon. Unfortunately the ship would need to undergo extensive rearranging if they wanted to place that particular weapon inside, so, instead, the Terrans had opted to place scores of Heavy Plasma Beam weapons, with even more plasma repeaters, railguns, PDLs and an extended magazine of 3000+ drones just for good measure. Not to mention the five ENI generators, a ZPM capable of being charged by them and the ability to raise the Fortress Shield. A hundred and twenty drone fighters were just the final touch to make this ship comparative with the smaller but still the deadliest warship in the Terran arsenal, the DN-306.

"Sir, I'm detecting a large complex on the surface of the planet," the ensign manning the sensors replied.

"Can you pick up SG-1's transponders?"

"No sir."

"That still doesn't mean they are not down there. Their transponders could have been removed," the captain replied thoughtfully. "How long until the rest of the fleet is here?"

"Ten minutes sir."

"In ten minutes a lot can happen. Notify the Special Forces' teams on board they have a go with the rescue mission. And launch the drone fighters. They are to provide support to our raptors."

"Yes sir."

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aschen Base  
**_stardate: 2697.43_

Inside the Aschen base, in a small room, Mitchell lay strapped in a slightly reclined chair with cables attached to his forehead. It had been that way for the past hour. Whatever this was that had been attached to him, he could feel it was forcefully accessing his memories, and it did it in a very painful way. He also understood how the device exactly worked.

The device would read his current surface thought, no matter what it was. Once the device had read the current memory, it would inflict pain through his synapses forcing him to reset what he was thinking and forcing him to think of something else, something he hadn't thought yet. If he didn't comply, thinking of the same thing, the jolt would simply repeat and in time increase in intensity.

He had tried thinking of the last football game he had watched, thinking that if he thought about a series of images, rather than of a static memory, the mind probe would not be able to detect his deception of thinking of a stupid game for at least the next hour.

It didn't work.

The more he tried to block the device from accessing the memory he didn't want the Aschen to know, the more pain he felt, and it was starting to feel unbearable. He could also remember how Vala, and afterwards Ford, had looked once they had been brought back to the cell. The probe had done a real number on them, and now it was doing the same to him. Still, Mitchell wasn't estranged to pain, the same as Ford and Vala weren't, and he wasn't about to make it easier for the probe to extract secrets from his mind. Not if he could help it.

Another shock coursed through him as the probe again tried to force him to think of something else. The probe wasn't only good at extorting information. It was also very good at torturing. As the shock subsided, the same way it had countless times before, he turned to see an Aschen entering the room and approach the one already inside, the one he had begun to call his personal torturer. If he could get free, he would show that man what sharp pain is.

"The Terrans have entered the system," the one Aschen that had just entered the room said.

"Are we evacuating?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"The gate is still open and the ship we had in the system has fled."

"Fled? Why?"

"The Terran ship that has entered the system is… massive."

"Aurora," Mitchell whispered with a smile.

Both Aschen turned to the strapped man on the chair, before his torturer asked the other Aschen another question, "How massive?"

"Three kilometers, at least."

"Hm… then it is understandable for our ship to have left. Are reinforcements arriving?"

"No. They have been ordered to turn back. We are to initiate the backup plan."

The torturer raised an eyebrow, "I see. That is… regrettable."

"I concur, but we have no other choice. Pity we weren't able to extract more from these Terrans."

"I agree. I will start with the necessary preparations immediately," the second Aschen said, the same moment as an alarm started blaring through the entire compound.

"The Terrans are here. You must hurry."

The second Aschen nodded before storming out of the room. As the Aschen opened the door, Mitchell heard a distinctive weapon's fire he knew very well. He could recognize the TR-X1 rifle's sound anywhere. He smiled.

The Aschen in the room deactivated the mind probe, taking a gun from the table nearby. Mitchell continued hearing the weapons' fire coming closer and closer, and only seconds later, the door opened again, with the Aschen firing at whoever was on the other side. It didn't help him though, as he got half a dozen bullets straight into his chest as a response. Mitchell felt sad. He really wanted to deal with his torturer on his own, definitely taking his time and not ending his life so quickly.

A soldier came near him, quickly taking the straps that were holding him tied on the chair off.

"Oh, how glad I am to see you."

"Colonel Mitchell, are you able to walk," the soldier said.

Mitchell tried to stand on his feet, but he felt wobbly, like his legs were made of jelly. He quickly lost strength in them almost falling. The soldier instinctively grabbed him by his forearm, helping him to stand upright.

"I'm alright." Mitchell said as he partially regained strength.

"Colonel, where's the rest of your team."

"Give me a gun and I'll show you."

The soldier gave him his sidearm. Without waiting a moment longer they went in the outside corridor, with Mitchell showing them the way where the prison cells were located.

While moving through the various corridors all looking almost the same, Mitchell decided he should inform them of something, "Before you came inside the interrogation room I heard two Aschen talking. They have some kind of backup plan and from the sound of it, they knew it meant they would die."

"Some kind of self-destruct?"

"That's what I thought yes. The other Aschen stormed out of the room. He said he was going to make the necessary preparations, which means we need to hurry."

The soldier quickly contacted the other teams who were canvasing the complex someplace else, giving them this new piece of information, just as they reached the area where the prison cells were.

"In which cell is the rest of your team?" the soldier asked.

Mitchell looked at the six identical doors, three on each side of the corridor, "I have no idea."

"It doesn't matter." The soldier said, seeing that Mitchell was barely standing. He turned to the three other member of his team. "Get to work and open those doors ASAP."

All four of them took one door, quickly beginning to work on the door's release mechanism. The first door one of the soldiers had succeeded in opening had no one inside. The second one, the one that Mitchell and the soldier who was helping him were trying to open had a man inside. Mitchell looked at the bearded man lying on the bed inside. "Ambassador Faxon?"

The man turned, looking back at Mitchell, "Yes."

Mitchell turned to face the soldier next to him, "I can manage on my own. Help him."

The soldier moved, grabbing the Ambassador, "Ambassador, we need to go now."

"Oh, okay," Faxon replied, getting up on his feet. He didn't complain, but it didn't look like he understood who they were either.

"Found them!" another soldier shouted from the corridor.

As Mitchell, Faxon and the soldier exited the cell, they saw Ford and Vala having already been brought outside into the corridor. Without any more delay, they all began moving out of the facility. There was no time to waste.

It had taken them almost five more minutes, but they had eventually reached the raptor waiting for them. The raptor immediately took off on its way to the Terran warship in orbit.

In orbit, inside the massive Terran warship, the captain was waiting impatiently. "Are there any news from our rescue party?"

"I just received word the rescue mission was a success and that all members are on board the raptors sir."

"Did scans reveal any type of self-destruct Mitchell mentioned?"

"No sir. Although, I am detecting a strange gravimetric distortion coming from where the system's star is located."

"The sun? Intensify scans of that region, now!"

The ensign worked on the console, focusing the powerful sensors of the Aurora class warship in the direction where the star was. "Sir, there are six large constructs all around the star creating a strong gravimetric pull. They… they are lowering the gravitational force the star exerts."

"Meaning?"

"It means there is a chance of the star becoming unstable. Sir, the star could go nova."

"Sir, the rest of the fleet has just arrived," another ensign added.

"Tell them to immediately engage their hyperdrives because the star can go critical at any moment."

The ensign contacted the fleet, sending the very important message. "The fleet is leaving right now."

"Sir, the star is beginning to expand."

"How long do we have until the shockwave reaches us?"

"The shockwave is traveling at near relativistic speed. It will be here in less than six minutes."

"And how long until the raptors are back?"

"It will be close. There is a chance a few raptors won't make it in time sir."

"Which raptors?"

"The last two sir. They are still inside the planet's atmosphere."

The captain thought quickly. "Alright. Helm, set an intercept course for our raptors and prepare the ship to enter hyperspace at a moment's notice. Comm., inform those raptor to disengage their engines the moment they are at a distance of one hundred kilometers from us. And tell them not to argue."

The ensign gulped. "But sir, they would still be deep inside the gravitational well of the planet. The same as we."

"I'm very well aware of that Ensign. Do it anyway."

The massive aurora turned on an intercept course for the raptors, quickly entering planetary lower orbit. As it went on a steep descent, the shields began burning as the friction with the planet's atmosphere began to intensify. From the left side, the forefront of the approaching shockwave, mostly made of EM radiation, was already turning the planet's atmosphere red, with the temperature climbing quickly.

The brunt of the shockwave was only moments behind.

"The raptors are inside the specified range and they have disengaged their engines sir!"

"Beam them now!"

"Raptors are on board!"

"Jump!"

The aurora's shield on the starboard side flared brightly, consequence of the approaching shockwave's radiation hitting the ship. An inferno of heat and turbulence enveloped the aurora as it plunged deeper and deeper into the atmosphere of the soon to be obliterated planet, the same moment as a hyperspace window formed straight ahead. The ship sped forward, disappearing into the newly formed hyperspace window just a moment before the planet broke apart, scooped by the shockwave like it was a small prop replica made of plastic.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**_stardate: 2700.93_

"They are blowing stars now!" a very irritated Jack said. "I thought only we were doing that."

"Apparently not," Klaus said not liking that fact either.

"Any word from the aurora?" Daniel asked.

"No. We don't know if the ship made it. They could have been destroyed by the shockwave or, if they somehow managed to escape the shockwave, then they must have sustained enough damage to be unable to contact us."

"Yeah, or they ended up in another galaxy." Sam added. "Remember what happened to us when we entered hyperspace while a star was exploding?"

"Don't remind me. We were lucky we came back," Jack said, frustrated. "Which means, our search party doesn't have much chance of finding the ship. It's like searching for a needle in… the universe."

Klaus turned to face Sam, "Is there any chance the Aschen could do something like that to any of our systems?"

"In theory, yes, they could do it in any system, but from the data the Aurora has sent us before the explosion we know the Aschen had constructed six large installations around the star; installations strong enough to create the needed gravitational pull to destabilize the star's own gravitational force that keeps it together. Stars have a very delicate balance between their gravitational force that is pulling everything closer and the fusion reaction that is trying to blow everything apart."

"So, they _could _do it, but it is not something you can do quickly. They would need to bring those large installations first and place them around a star."

"Yes. Not a very efficient way to attack somebody, but a very efficient way to use them inside already occupied systems as a deterrent. Still, we are already working on placing some defenses near stars in all our systems; just in case."

"Can we do that to the Aschen? I mean, can we bring a nice stargate near their sun and dial the address where there's that black hole on the other side?" Jack said, looking at the plastered looks he was receiving. "Oh forget I said anything. Not something I would ever do. I'm just pissed at them."

"Well, the Aschen do come close to being the race where to use such tactics. In the long run, we can beat them countless times, but we all know they are never going to change. They are simply sociopaths and there's nothing we could do that can change that." Klaus replied.

"Well, for now I will be happy to just give them a good lesson. How is our little plan of showing them they are not so invincible coming?" Jack said, looking at Sam.

"The LRMS (Long Range Missile System) has been tested and it's ready for deployment. We have already built enough of them to strike at the Aschen whenever ready," Sam replied.

"Good. As soon as the Jaffa are ready too, we are proceeding with the mission. The Aschen should feel very fortunate we have other things to worry about at the moment," Jack replied.

"What are we going to do about Borealis? The last time we heard from them six more Leptinian beehive ships have entered the system, and even more have been detected on course for the same system. Is the fleet we have in the Large Magellanic Could even enough to face so many of them?" Sam asked.

"Don't know. For now the city is safely tucked on the bottom of the ocean and there's nothing the Leptinians can do to change that. I'm going there myself later today to see what can be done. Maybe this could even turn out to be a good thing."

"How can this come out as a good thing?" Sam asked.

"Because the Leptinians are sending a lot of their ships there, without having the ability to actually inflict any damage. I don't know if facing them in battle there is even warranted. If they are turning so many of their ships there, it means they have that much less somewhere else. We could maybe harass them from time to time, just to keep them busy, but I think we should focus on taking the fight to their worlds instead and leave them flying above the sunken city for as long as they wish."

"Alright, that does sound like a plan. I just wouldn't want for them to somehow find a way to target the city even while on the bottom of the ocean. If that happens, they could be in a very bad situation."

"And that's why I'm going there right now. I want to work out a contingency plan with Young and Caldwell if that is to happen, no matter how remote such possibility is," Jack said.

* * *

**Furling galaxy – Sanarian Outpost  
**_stardate: 2709.22_

The almost four hundred meters long Edenian warship reverted to normal space at spit distance from the planet. Quickly pushing forward, the ship entered low orbit in a matter of seconds. Using its beaming system, the ship deposited a stargate on the planet's surface, seconds before opening another hyperspace window and leaving the system with the same haste as it came. The Sanarian satellites, placed there to protect their base on the surface, hadn't even had enough time to aim, much less fire on the Edenian cruiser that had, at least in the Sanarians' eyes, had used a very strange and unknown way of faster-than-light travel.

On the ground, the stargate shimmered into invisibility immediately upon being deposited. In less than a minute the invisible gate became visible again for a fraction of a second as the event horizon erupted, disrupting the gate's cloaking field. Once the event horizon settled, the gate once again became fully invisible. The stargate had just established a wormhole to another stargate on a distant planet, a planet where Edenian teams readily awaited for that to happen.

Teams began exiting from the very useful rounded device, taking a defensive position around the gate. After the initial platoon of soldiers, a few fighter drones came out instead, quickly engaging their cloak and climbing in altitude.

In the next few minutes, more very determined soldiers would step onto the alien world, all taking defensive positions and creating a rounded perimeter in order to protect their beachhead. In such situation, the initial phase was always the most perilous. They need to secure the immediate area before they began their assault at the Sanarian base, only four miles on the south.

This process would take a good part of the next hour, before the company worth of soldiers was to push toward the Sanarian base while under the constant protection of the cloaked drone fighters circling above their position.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**


	22. Consequences

**Nagato: **Coming right away.

**Apocalyps24:** I have something similar in mind for the future. Although such tech used for generators sounds very similar to subspace capacitors. The problem I have with Doctor Who's theories is that saying things like infinitely small and infinitely large maybe sounds cool and all mystical but it actually explains nothing and leaves you wondering, with your brain going - _What? What? What?_

**Arsenal18: **Here comes a little story. You have a car that works great but it is far from the car you want to have. You want a sports car, and what you have it simply isn't it. So you decide to work a little on your car to make it better. You buy a new engine that has a lot more horsepower than your previous one and replace it. Now your car has a lot of power, but since even more than having a sports car you want to live a long and healthy life you know that now you must change the tires, breaks and suspensions in order not to crash after the first curve. So you buy those too and replace the old ones. Now you notice that your car is powerful, has good tires, brakes and suspensions, but it still doesn't look like a sports car. So you start working on the chassis by adding newly bought spoilers and whatever you think it will make your car look more _sporty_. So, the job goes on and on and then one day you collect all the bills, and gasp in horror. You spent a crap load of money, and you still don't have a Ferrari. The car still doesn't look like a Ferrari, the engine is not that of a Ferrari, because it simply couldn't fit in, and the overall performance is far below that of a Ferrari. _Crap!_

Usually the things you put inside the chassis or frame or hull, are more expensive than the hull itself, and yet, the hull is still limiting you on what you can put in. You see, if you can put into a Beliskner everything you want, like the same number of ENI generators to charge a ZPM, the same shield generators, engines and whatever else, plus retaining other systems the ship had like the beaming system, why would you spend more time and more resources in building a ship several times larger like the Valhalla in the first place? Then, you would simply build the old Beliskners with the new components wasting less time and resources and be done with it.

I refuse to add in my story anything that suggests creating something from nothing. It is something that sounds ridiculous bordering to magical, and it can only complicate things because you then have no limits like the need for mining materials before you can build something. If I do that, then I could just give them magic wands. Beaming systems can beam something from point A to point B. That's it.

Four ENI generators are the bare minimum for charging a ZPM, but it still takes like ten years to fully charge one ;)

**EvilTheLast: **The Aschen ship had no way of winning and its destruction wouldn't have helped those on the ground.I don't believe there is such a thing as complete transparency when governments are concerned. The Tollans seemed as the only one who achieved such transparency, but then that was when they lived in peace with no problems whatsoever. The moment troubles started, their government began hiding things. Although, whatever the Aschen leaders are hiding or embellishing, it will become very difficult after this chapter ;)

**Chronus1326**: There will be use for the Cylons in the chapters to come

**Thanks to my beta, and hope you'll enjoy this chapter too.**

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Heliopolis  
**_stardate: 2791.65_

"But I don't want to!" Jack whined in desperation.

"Jack, all the other council members did it a long time ago and you are the last one," Sam said while physically pushing the man to move.

"What about my other me?"

"He's next, once you're through with it."

"How long do I need to be there?"

"Two months."

"TWO MONTHS! Have you all gone insane! I won't survive two days with that bunch of… _hippies_!"

"I assure you, it's not that bad. And I'm more worried about _them_ having to spend two months with _you_."

"Of course it's bad. I saw how you looked when you got back. That wasn't a look of a happy woman; that much I know."

It was true. Sam barely made it out alive. Spending two months with the Nox in the forest had been excruciating for her. From the moment she had stepped inside the Nox complex, she wanted nothing else than to go back to Earth to continue with her work she very much loved doing. But rules were rules and the council had agreed on the exchange program in which Terrans were to spend two months with the Nox, two with the Asgard and two with the Guardians, and the other races would do the same in return. At least her stay with the Asgard and the Guardians had been much less painful, especially the two months with the Asgard. She quickly learned that there was not much else to do with them than to go through their classrooms by exploring new and exciting theories; something that she had very much loved doing.

Jack as well had spent two months with the Asgard, and he actually made it out alive, but only because Thor came in his rescue. When Thor asked Jack what he had learned in the last classroom the Asgard had prepared for the Terrans, Jack simply replied, 'What classroom?'

It was enough for Thor to understand what had happened. Jack must have spaced out from the moment the lecture had started, completely blocking everything that had happened that day. After that, the two of them had spent most of the time together, far away from any classrooms.

"I'm the Terran High Councilor and I can't be away for two months!"

"Oh, you lost that excuse the moment your double showed up."

"I knew it would eventually bite me in the ass this double me thingy."

"Besides, you like the woods, don't you?" Sam asked hopefully, trying to find anything that could make him go.

"Carter, the most I saw of trees was when I was hiding before shooting somebody, and I don't think the Nox would like that very much."

"Maybe they'll let you go fishing."

Jack stopped, "You think?"

"Sure, why not."

"That actually could be a good thing. Do you think they have beer too?"

"You know, I bet they do have beer."

"Okay, I'll go. But if there's no beer or fishing, I'm leaving."

"Deal," Sam said, knowing full well that once he entered the Nox section of the complex, there was no way of getting out without the Nox allowing it.

Jack nodded, continuing walking forward, now on his own power. He turned one more time, seeing Sam ushering him to continue. Reluctantly, he did, stepping inside the booth that was going to transport him to the Nox's side of the complex.

Sam finally sighed, the same moment she saw Jack vanish in a bright flash of light. Jack was finally through. _Thank God!_

She turned noticing Weir next to her, "Elizabeth, what are you doing here?"

"Hi Sam. I was rescheduling my time with the Guardians. With John and Rodney missing, I don't think it's the right time for me to leave Atlantis at all, much less for as long as two months. You?"

"Well, Jack needed a little push to go through with his visit to the Nox," Sam said, shrugging.

"Ouch! I assume he wasn't very happy about it, was he?"

"That's an understatement."

"The worst part is that you'll have to repeat the same process again in two months," Weir said, thinking of the second Jack that still needed to get his turn.

Sam sighed, "Don't remind me. I predict it will be even worse, since Jack number one will certainly tell him how it went. My trick by telling him that there's beer and fishing waiting for him on the other side, won't work next time."

"I bet it won't, but I'm also worried about the Nox having to spend _four _months with Jack. Even they must have a limit to what they can take," Weir replied.

"Yeah, I'm already seeing the Nox wanting to get out of the alliance," Sam replied, jokingly.

"That's not a very nice thought, but I have to admit, the Nox are the least involved in this alliance," Weir replied, thoughtfully.

"Well, from their isolationistic ways, they have come a long way."

"Maybe, but they are still the least involved in what is happening in this and other galaxies. While I understand their reluctance to get involved in the other galaxies, I thought they would get more involved in this one at least. Maybe we should be the ones to force the issue more. You know, to try and get them more interested."

"Possibly, but anything that has to do with the various wars we are fighting is off limit, you know that. And since we have a lot of wars to fight, there's a lot of stuff off limit."

"True enough, but we have a lot of programs to help people in need in this and other galaxies. We should at least try to force those issues on the Nox to get them more involved."

"I'll talk to the council about it. We are planning on forming some kind of Peace Corps to go around the galaxy and help others."

"Uh, good idea. I bet the Nox would be open to an involvement in such a project."

"Yeah, but they are still very reluctant to travel to other worlds and meet with other races."

"Hence why we need to push the issue."

"Good point," Sam said, looking at the watch. "Eh… have to go now. Work never waits for anyone, and I have a meeting with my department in less than half an hour."

"Well, don't let me stop you. I'll stop by on Earth later today, so if you're free we can have lunch together."

"Deal. See you later." Sam said. Receiving a nod from Weir, she moved on her way to Heliopolis' gate room in order to go to Earth.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Near Aschen System  
**_stardate: 2796.75_

Admiral of the Space Fleet Jack O'Neill stood on the bridge of the DN-306 Hercules, the flagship of the Terran First Fleet. In the last two weeks, the Terran Space Fleet had changed a lot in the way they operated, all in order to better utilize the ever increasing number of ships at their disposal. The first thing they did was to place the ships in three separate fleets, the First, Second and Third Fleet, with the Second Fleet deployed in the Pegasus galaxy. Furthermore, the fleets had been further divided into battle groups, all in a more naval fashion than what the Air Force would have done. Even the ranking system had been changed to be very similar to the one used by the US Navy, all taken reluctantly by both Jack O'Neills. This way, now there was the title for ensign, lieutenant, lieutenant commander, commander, captain, rear admiral, vice admiral, admiral, fleet admiral and Admiral of the Space Fleet.

While the original Jack kept his title of high councilor, the one who came from five minutes in the future took the title of fleet admiral, the man in charge of the entire Terran Space Fleet. Opposite to the fleet, the Terran Army kept their usual ranking system, further distinguishing them from the flying boys and girls of the fleet.

There was one thing though that future Jack didn't like. The fact that, as Admiral of the Space Fleet, he was directly under High Councilor Jack O'Neill, the same as General of the Army Tomas Anderson. There was also General Nikolai Chekov, the man in charge of the Special Forces, a special branch of the Army. The thing that did unite those people though, was the wish of the council to form the Peace Corps, a separate branch not under the purview of the military, with the sole job of going around the galaxy and helping other races. High Councilor Jack, in a moment of weakness, yelled, _'Great! Another bunch of do-gooders we'll have to babysit even more than the people we are trying to help'_, with the rest of the council voting unanimously _'yes'_ the next instant. He was more than certain they had done it in pure spite.

"Are all ships in position?" Jack asked Admiral Hank Landry.

"They are Jack," Landry replied.

"Let's do this then."

Outside of the ship, as well as near other ships that had been spread on different locations one light year around the Aschen home system, with a bright flash of light, a long range missile containing a 'Gate Buster' warhead appeared in space. The missile engaged its sublight engine, pushing forward in the direction of the Aschen system. Having achieved a certain speed, the missile activated its FTL warp drive, bursting forward and disappearing from sight.

"How long?" Jack asked.

"Three minutes until reversion to normal space," an ensign replied.

Jack waited for the three long minutes to pass. They had sent several cloaked probes in the Aschen system so they could have a better view of what was going to happen. If everything went well, the Aschen won't even have the time to raise their shields on their orbiting shipyards before the missiles hit them.

"I am detecting detonations in orbit around Aschen Prime. Eleven of seventeen Aschen shipyards have been destroyed by the missiles."

Jack turned to look at Landry, "I'm satisfied. You?"

"We knew there was a chance they could raise their shields on some shipyards in time."

"Um, sir! I'm detecting another explosion on the planet's surface," the same ensign replied.

"What?"

"One of the missiles must have missed the shipyard and went straight into the planet's atmosphere. I'm detecting a massive explosion, five hundred kilometers in diameters, massive atmospheric disturbance; some tectonic plates have begun shifting…"

"Oy," Jack grunted, face-palming. "That wasn't the plan, was it?"

"No Jack, it wasn't," Landry said before turning to the ensign, "What level of casualties are we talking about ensign?"

"Hundreds of millions of people dead and that is without the losses from the aftermath that will inevitably follow. We can expect earthquakes, volcanoes erupting and a large amount of radiation spreading all across the planet."

"Yeah, twelve hundred megatons tends to do that to a planet. Crap!" Jack said.

"How could we miss an entire orbital shipyard?" Landry asked.

"The blast from one of the first explosions that destroyed a shipyard pushed another out of its position, enough for the missile to miss its target."

"Well, there is nothing we can do now. Contact the Jaffa, our part of the mission is done here. They can start with theirs." Jack said. "And we can go home. We've done what we came here to do… and _more_ apparently. Crap!"

Jack without saying anything else, simply went out of the bridge on its way to his accommodations. Maybe there was some bottle the stewards had placed there and that he could, right about now, very much use.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Unknown Planet  
**_stardate: 2796.82_

Teal'c stood on the bridge of his new ship, the newly built flagship of the Free Jaffa Nation. The massive ship was almost two kilometers in diameter and it had all the most advanced systems the Jaffa had at their disposal. Even the upgrades they had received from the captured Aschen ship had been hastily added to the flagship. It had been a great day when the ship had been released from the shipyard; even more since the Jaffa were celebrating the discovery of a cure that would allow their children to truly be free from the dependency to the Goa'uld or the Tretonin drug.

An already powerful ship, the Jaffa flagship, had been further upgraded, giving the ship unprecedented offensive and defensive capabilities. So much that some believed it could go toe-to-toe with an Ori warship and come out victorious.

"Master Teal'c, the Terrans have informed us of the success of their mission, but there has been some collateral damage."

"What kind of damage?" Teal'c asked.

"One of their long range missiles slipped into Aschen Prime's atmosphere detonating near the surface. They say the damage to the planet is massive."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow, just before smiling. He had no sympathy for the Aschen anyway. "Is there any change in the Aschen fleet near us?"

"Yes, Master Teal'c. We detected several hyperspace windows opening a few moments ago. Some Aschen ships must have decided to return home, but I am uncertain of how many."

"It does not matter. Notify the fleet we are ready to commence our attack. Jump in hyperspace in one minute."

One minute later, the dozen Ha'taks and the flagship slipped into hyperspace for the short trip to one of the _new _Aschen worlds. After the attack on the three planets in the Aschen Confederation, in which case the Jaffa had destroyed the various crops and farms on the planet, as well as having taken the stargates to further hurt the Aschen ability to feed their home planet and their massive population, the Jaffa, in collaboration with the TIA, had begun searching for other worlds the Aschen must have brought into their so called confederation in order to feed their people. It took them a few months, but they eventually found out that the Aschen had brought two more planets into their fold. These two new planets were the next target on their list.

While the Terrans were hurting them at home from long range so they wouldn't need to directly fight the Aschen, the Jaffa would once again hurt them by stripping them of their very much needed food supply. Some people from the TIA had congratulated the Jaffa for their ingenuity in attacking their supply worlds in order to bring the Aschen to their knees. And indeed the TIA analysts believed that there was even a chance the Aschen could capitulate if their food reserves fell to an unsustainable level for their population. Analyzing their home world, the Terrans had concluded that the Aschen were relying on food from other worlds even more than it had previously been believed. Apparently, very few on the Aschen home world worked on food production. A very dangerous thing to do, but it looked like the Aschen were arrogant enough to believe they were untouchable.

Exiting hyperspace, the large Jaffa fleet found only six Aschen ships still orbiting their planet. The Terrans have correctly guessed the Aschen would retreat to their home world immediately after the Terrans had begun their attack. It was a mistake the Aschen were going to pay dearly by losing two more worlds. A fitting punishment for what they did to the Jaffa and for what they tried to do to the Terrans, even with the missile having destroyed a good portion of their world; at least in Teal'c's opinion.

Pushing forward, the Jaffa fleet quickly crossed the distance between them and the small Aschen fleet. Entering weapons range, and without warning, the Jaffa opened fire at the Aschen forces. The six Aschen ships returned fire, but it was already apparent what the outcome of the battle would end up to be.

"Target the rear starboard side of that warship with our main cannons," Teal'c said, as the flagship entered weapons range. From the schematics he had received from the Terrans, he knew where the Aschen had placed the least of shield emitters on their ships, thinking that the front would be the one being targeted first.

The more than three times larger heavy plasma cannons on board the flagship than it was usual for a Ha'tak, began firing massive bolts of compressed plasma at the closest Aschen ship. The bolts slammed one after the other in the rear starboard side of the Aschen ship, with the fourth hit going straight through its shield and blasting away half of the ship's rear section. The ship began spinning from the sudden loss of such a large chunk. As the ship spun out of control, more plasma blasts from the flagship's main weapons impacted more and more sections of the damaged ship. A massive explosion that blasted the entire ship apart quickly followed, signaling the complete destruction of the Aschen warship.

While the flagship took care of one ship, the rest of the fleet was spending that time chewing the rest, with two more ships already at breaking point. The other three ships quickly began evasive maneuvers, in seconds entering hyperspace and leaving the battle.

Several Ha'tak left the battle as well, even before the other two ships were completely destroyed. They were on their way to the Aschen planet. Taking orbit, the Ha'taks began bombardment of the planet's surface, destroying crops, farms and harvesters floating around. The bombardment would take at least half an hour, but after they were done, nothing of any use to the Aschen would remain standing.

Teal'c smiled. If the Aschen believed it would be so easy to take the galaxy at large, they would have to reevaluate their way of thinking. Teal'c knew the Aschen had many more ships at their disposal, some estimates even going as high as mentioning more than a hundred warships, but that would mean nothing against the combined forces of the Second Great Alliance and the Free Jaffa Nation. The Aschen could be happy they were still alive, thanks to the fact that the Second Great Alliance had _bigger fish to fry _at the moment.

* * *

**Senari Galaxy – Uprising  
**_stardate: 2809.45_

"Nala! Hurry!" Mial shouted.

Nala got back on her feet, taking Mial's hand. She turned, seeing the mass of Senari chasing them. To be more precise, she didn't know if they were chasing them, or if they were chasing whoever they would notice.

Quickly slipping into another alley, Mial and Nala ran as fast as they could until Mial noticed a small doorway, quickly slipping inside and hiding behind a wall. They waited, catching their breath, while the horde of angry Senari passed by them, breaking everything that could be broken.

"This is not what I thought would happen. This is full civil war," Nala said exasperated.

"Nala, we knew from the beginning that it wouldn't be easy. Many of our people have a hard time understanding the fact that they were slaves for the last hundred thousand years."

"I know that Mial, but… I never thought so many would renounce the truth even when faced with overwhelming proof," Nala said, ducking instinctively the next moment when she heard an explosion only a few streets away. "We need to leave."

"I know Nala, I know."

"But how? The spaceport has been destroyed. There's no way to leave the planet," Nala said. Their planet, Senar, had been ravaged by both sides; those that believed in the truth and those that were blaming the rebels for showing it to them.

"I have hidden a small shuttle just outside the city for this exact reason. We just need to get there somehow." Mial replied, thinking how crossing miles through what looked like a war zone and not getting killed in the process was practically impossible.

"You think we can get out of the city?" Nala replied, not liking their odds.

"We must try. We can't stay here." Mial said, nodding to Nala that it was time to start running again.

Exiting their little hiding place, both of them took off as fast as their legs would carry them. Crossing several streets in a very short time, they were suddenly stopped by the appearance of a small patrol at the end of the street they were in. The patrol noticed them, quickly beginning to chase after them. Mial quickly pulled Nala into another alley.

Not half way through, Mial turned to check if the patrol was still following them. They were. Again, slipping into another alley, this time their luck ran out. In front of them there were four Senari and they didn't look friendly.

"They are here!" one of the four Senari shouted.

The four men began moving towards them. Mial and Nala turned back, but the patrol had entered the same alley as well, cutting any possible exit.

"Mial, what do we do?" Nala said frightened.

"I don't think there is anything we _can_ do," Mial replied, as well worried.

Mial and Nala had quickly been surrounded with no way of escape. One of the Senari stepped forward, only meters from them.

"Well, well, the leaders of the rebellion," the Senari said, with an evil grin.

"Why are you doing this?" Mial asked, trying to find a way out of this. "You know the truth. The Vargas enslaved us over a hundred thousand years ago. We are finally free of their influence."

"Lies! Only Lies!" the same Senari yelled. "You infected us. You are the one who's trying to enslave us."

"The only thing we did is to give you freedom from the enslavement of the neural interface the Vargas gave us. You now have the freedom to choose and to think freely."

"Silence! There's nothing you can say to save yourself. You will be executed today, in public. That is my promise," the same Senari said, nodding to the other men to take them.

Mial was ready to fight, the moment any of them tried to grab them, but before that happened, several bright flashes of light deposited a full squad of Guardians clad in armor all around them. Without waiting, the Guardians fired at the startled Senari. All Senari in the alley except for Mial and Nala dropped onto the ground with plasma burns all over their bodies. Two Guardians moved quickly, grabbing both Mial and Nala by their hand. Only seconds later another bright beam of light took them all away.

Mial turned to look where he was. He immediately recognized the bridge of the Guardian Seraphim class battleship. They were safe.

The captain approached Mial, "Have you been injured?"

"No-no, we weren't," Mial said, still feeling the adrenalin coursing through his veins.

In the meantime, Nala had already moved to look through the frontal view. "Mial!"

Mial snapped, quickly moving near Nala. Outside, hundreds of ships of various sizes, civilian and not, were fighting amongst each other. He could see warships firing at civilian ships who were trying to leave orbit, with other warships firing at them in return, "To the heavens! This is madness!"

Before anyone could say anything, one of the officers on the bridge noticed something on his console, "Captain, several ships are converging on our location. They must have detected the beaming to and from the planet."

"Drop the cloak and activate the shield."

"Can you help somehow?" Nala asked, looking straight at the captain.

"I don't know how Nala. There are hundreds of ships out there and we don't know which one is on which side. There are probably fights going on inside those ships as well. If we engage them in battle, we will be killing Senari from both sides," The captain replied somberly.

"He is right Nala. There is nothing we can do with only one ship," Mial replied.

"Wait, maybe there is. What if we target only their weapon systems?" the captain asked as he got an idea.

"But which ships?" Mial asked.

"All of them. We target all ships that are firing. If we target only their weapons, the ships should still be able to leave if they wish to," the captain said as he felt the first impact on the battleship's shield.

Mial thought about it for a few seconds, "Do it."

The captain turned to his weapons officer, "Launch drones. Target weapon systems and prioritize ships that are firing on civilian ships."

"Ay-ay sir," the officer replied.

Streams of golden squids erupted from the several dedicated ports, spreading in all directions. The drones flew towards the many warships, going straight through their shields and detonating wherever the ships had their weapons emplaced.

"Target those three ships that are attacking us with our primary weapons," the captain said. There was no doubt about on whose side those ships were.

Lances of destructive energy flew from the powerful warship, the shields on the enemy warships capable of surviving for mere seconds before the beams were able to cut through. One after the other, all three ships were completely disabled with different degrees of damage throughout their hull.

"Sir, drone reserves have been exhausted," the weapons officer replied.

"What's the situation?"

"We were able to disable a good portion of the warships in the system, but there are still many capable of firing. There are also five more warships on intercept course towards us."

"Mial, we did what we could. If we use our primary beam weapons, there's a good chance of destroying any ship we target rather than to simply disable their weapons. I think it is time for us to leave."

Mial looked at Nala, who didn't like it, but there was nothing else they could do here, "Yes captain. Can you take us to the rebel base?"

"I am here under orders to assist you in any way possible. We are here to help Mial," the captain replied, before turning to face the helm, "Helm, plot a course to the rebel base."

The officer at the helm inputted the necessary commands, with the ship quickly moving from Senar's orbit. A few seconds later, it opened a hyperspace window and disappeared inside it.

"We did this Mial. We are responsible for this war," Nala said almost in tears.

"We are Nala, but there was no other way. We needed to free our people, no matter the cost," Mial said, not liking how things turned out, but not knowing what else they could have done.

"Mial, may I ask what the plan is once we reach the base?" the captain asked

Mial turned to face the captain, "We need to regroup. We are assembling a fleet; all those that have turned to our cause are converging there. Once we have regrouped, we will start liberating worlds."

"All right. We'll be there in approximately one hour. If you wish, we have prepared accommodations for you, so you can rest while we travel."

Mial looked at a very tired Nala, "That would be appreciated, Captain."

The captain, nodded to one of the crew, who quickly stepped near Mial and Nala, "If you would please follow me."

Without a word, the two Senari followed the crewmember out of the bridge.

The captain sighed, thinking how this, in the end, turned out to be a pretty big mess. Soon, more warships and transport ships from the Andromeda galaxy will as well reach the rebel base, with supplies to help the rebels to finally free their kind from the Vargas oppression, but the captain knew it wouldn't be much, since only ships with Merlin's shifting device could safely cross the anomaly without being immediately targeted by the massive space station in front of it. He wished there was more he could do for these people, and he wished even more that there was not so many Senari who were still refusing to see the truth.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aschen Prime  
**_stardate: 2810.21_

The same room was once again filled by the Aschen upper echelons of their government, the same way as any other time. But this time it was different, as nobody was talking.

If the Aschen were as other humans in the galaxy at large, they would right at this exact moment be yelling at each other, laying blame to one another, some probably destroying everything in the room with a baseball bat or whatever the Aschen equivalent was, all in utter anger. But, since the Aschen didn't feel anger or any other emotions, like fear or sorrow, they simply stood in silence, not one of them knowing what to say.

As time passed by, Mollem decided he needed to somehow break the silence, "What is the damage the nuclear explosion on the surface has created?"

Another Aschen in the room looked at him, waiting for a moment, before looking back at his screen, "The blast radius is in excess of five hundred kilometers. We are registering volcanic activities throughout the region, even from volcanoes eight hundred kilometers from the epicenter of the detonation. The death toll is around three hundred million people and we expect the radiation, earthquakes and other calamities will take tens of millions of lives more in the months to come. We have never prepared any plan for such scenario."

"What is the current status in orbit?" Mollem asked the next question.

"Eleven shipyards have been completely obliterated and two have taken moderate damage and will be out of commission for several months. Only four shipyards remain completely intact. We have lost all ships that were under construction in those destroyed shipyards, plus seven more that were near them at the moment of explosion.

"Five more ships have been destroyed in the Jaffa raid at the other two worlds in the confederation and the planets have been leveled from orbit. The gates have also been taken."

"What about the new ship type the Jaffa are wielding?"

"The ships that managed to leave the battle were able to scan it. It is something we have never seen before. Power generation, shields and weapons are far exceeding what the Jaffa had before. And unfortunately there is more bad news."

"What?"

"Scans of their shields were enough to be certain they have been modified in the same way as our own shields."

"How is that possible?"

"Uncertain at this moment, but some of us have theorized that the Jaffa must have had access to one of our ships in order to be able to modify their shields in such a way. As far as we know, only their flagship has this modification, which tells us this is something they have learned only recently, but we fear the rest of their ships will undergo the same upgrades in short time."

"This means that our ship that we thought destroyed, is in Jaffa's hands. This is even worse news than the loss of the shipyards. We never thought the Jaffa were capable of taking one of our ships without us even knowing about it, much less being able to understand the technology behind it. Not in such a short time anyway."

"I agree. The Terrans have helped the Jaffa in many areas, including producing scientists amongst their ranks, but still, being able to reverse engineer our systems in such a short time, I would have never thought possible."

"They could have received help from the Terrans. It is even possible that the Terrans were the ones who captured the ship and that have simply given the plans to the Jaffa after they examined it."

"It is possible, but would the Terrans give the Jaffa such advanced technologies. They are allies, but their cultures are so different. There must be mistrust between them."

"There is a chance the Terrans do not believe even our technology is at their level. In such case they would have no reason not to give such technology to the Jaffa since they would still retain superiority with their own that they received from the Asgard and maybe these Guardians and Nox we have heard of."

"There is still no proof of any of these other races to even exist. No one has ever seen them, only rumors and what the captured Terrans told us. The Nox are supposedly a very advanced race located in this galaxy. How is it possible then that no one knows how they even look?"

"I don't know," Mollem said, thinking of the massive clusterfuck this whole thing created. They thought they would without too much trouble win against the Terrans. In such case, the Jaffa would be nothing more than a mere nuisance, but apparently they were wrong. Now, even the Jaffa were becoming a problem, and the Terrans looked untouchable. "Do we have a viable option to stop more of these long range missiles from hurting us?"

"Our sensors were able to detect them when they reached our detection grid, but it was already too late. If we place our satellites farther away from our planet, we should be able to raise our shields and activate our orbital platforms in time. Until then, all our ships and asset in orbit are to stay on high alert with their shields raised."

Mollem liked this even less. Constantly keeping their shields raised would strain the reactors considerably. They were never meant to be used in such a way. "What is our next move?"

"We attack the Jaffa first. We need to at least weaken them before they upgrade all their ships."

"It is possible we will incur massive losses. It could leave us almost defenseless against the Terrans."

"We must hope the Terrans will be more preoccupied with the Ori in the next few months to be able to provide aid to the Jaffa. Even this attack, no matter how crippling it was for us, has showed that the Terrans are not willing to openly attack us with their warships. They must as well believe that the Ori are the major threat here, and that they can't lose ships on us."

* * *

**Senari Galaxy – Rebel base  
**_stardate: 2811.15_

The guardian Seraphim class battleship exited hyperspace in orbit of the same planet that Liam had once before visited. The system was located on the outer edge of the galaxy, the perfect place for a secret base.

After a well-deserved rest, Mial and Nala were once again on the bridge of the Guardian ship, impatiently awaiting their arrival. As the frontal view displayed the planet, the relief Mial felt was suddenly cut short when he noticed that something was not as it should have been.

"Please contact the rebel base immediately," Mial said.

The captain sensed the urgency in his voice, although he didn't know the exact reason why. He nodded to one of the crew members, who opened a comm. channel right away. It took only a moment for a Senari to appear on the frontal display.

"Mial, I'm glad to see you and Nala are alive. We received word of what happened on Senar," the Senari said, lowering his gaze in sadness.

"Thank you. It was a close call," Mial said. "Astar, where is the fleet?"

Astar took a deep breath before beginning, "Six hours ago, the ships' captains began talking among themselves through secure channels. A few of our people on board those ships were able to inform me of what they were discussing. They came to the idea of attacking the Vargas space stations. Fifty Senari warships departed for the anomalies shortly afterwards."

"Oh, for ancestor's sake!" the captain of the ship yelled as he heard the news. "Sorry Mial, but this is exactly what we told your people _not_ to do."

"I am aware of that," Mial said.

"I'm sorry Mial, I tried to persuade them, but they wouldn't listen," Astar replied.

"I know you did Astar," Mial replied, turning to the captain. "Captain, is there a chance we can reach them before they reach the anomalies?"

"We can try Mial, but they have a good start on us. There's a chance they are already there."

"Let's try at least," Mial replied.

"Helm, set course for the anomalies, best speed," the captain ordered.

The ship turned away from the planet, quickly entering hyperspace.

It took them almost a full and excruciatingly long hour to reach the anomalies and the space stations placed there to block anyone uninvited from coming through them. When they exited hyperspace, the ship immediately began scanning the area.

"Sir, the sensors are detecting debris. A lot of them," the crewman manning the sensors replied.

"What kind of debris?"

"I would say the debris field is the result of many Senari warships having been destroyed. From the size of it I would say the number of warships should be around fifty."

"It is too late," Mial said.

"What about the stations?" the captain asked.

"It looks like they targeted the central station, the one that leads to Vargas territory. I am detecting some damage on the outer hull, but it still looks operational. Um… one moment! I'm detecting something coming out of the station," the sensors officer said.

"What is it?" the captain asked.

"It looks like a small probe, no more than ten meters in size. It's going straight for the central anomaly sir," the officer said.

"Helm, can we intercept the probe before it reaches the anomaly?"

"No sir, we are still too far out. And we would also have to enter the weapons range of the station even if we could," the man replied.

"Dammit!" the captain shouted. There was not much else he could do except to wait and watch as the probe disappeared through the central anomaly, the one leading to Vargas territory. The captain turned to face Mial. "Now we have a big problem."

"I am sorry Captain. We told everyone not to go after the Vargas stations, but they were angry for what they did to us. In a way, I understand their wish to fight them in any way possible."

"I am sorry too Mial, but we will be even more sorry when the Vargas start sending ships here. We are far from being ready for them."

"I would say there is a good possibility of that being true, yes."

"Let's make a short detour through the anomaly and pass this information to my people. There is nothing else we can do here anyway," the captain said, ordering the ship to engage its dimensional cloak and to leave this place.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Vis Uban  
**_stardate: 2813.79_

Jack stepped through the gate onto the grassy terrain of Vis Uban, the last planet the Alterrans had attempted to colonize before the plague started. Unfortunately, the plague had struck and the Alterrans had been forced to abandon the Milky Way galaxy and the still unfinished Vis Uban with it. Five million years later, a few centuries more or less, the Terrans had visited this planet for the first time, believing they had found the lost city. Instead, the planet held no treasure they were so eagerly hoping to find.

Now, several years after the Terrans first set foot on the planet, Jack was here once again. The reason why was simple. He was in search for Daniel. Moving for the next five minutes straight ahead from the gate, Jack entered a large complex with people buzzing around in all directions. Looking around, he could see people performing various tasks, ranging from aimlessly wondering with no evident purpose, to those working the fields of freshly planted tomatoes and other assorted vegetables.

Walking down the path covered in small pebbly stones, Jack came in front of a large arched doorway, looking like the one usually found in front of a Tibetan monastery. That was the entrance point of what they were simply calling, the Sanctuary.

The Sanctuary was a part of what this planet had become in the last year, a place where people, no matter from what planet or turbulent past they came from, could come and live here for as long as they wished. The rest of the complex was used for those came to this planet to barter, meet other people, or simply to learn about this place. Everybody was welcomed here with open arms, with the only condition if you wanted to step onto the planet being, to leave any weapon before stepping through the gate.

The Sanctuary was for those who wanted to leave their past life and start anew a life of peace, free from any material constraints. The life in the Sanctuary was simple, consisting of working in the fields to provide food, meditation and teachings about enlightenment. From the moment someone stepped inside the Sanctuary, he would renounce all his previous riches and dedicate his life to a simple existence, no matter what his past held against him.

Jack walked down the beautiful garden, already having noticed Daniel at the far end, dressed in the usual Alterran white robes.

"Daniel," Jack called, once he reached his friend.

Daniel turned. "Oh, Jack, you are here."

"I am Daniel. Do you know why I'm here?" Jack asked, crossing his arms and tapping his right foot on the pebbly ground.

"Um… no," Daniel replied, sheepishly.

"Oh well, let me then _enlighten_ you. DANIEL! YOU ARE A COUNCIL MEMBER!"

"Um… I know that."

"Are you sure you do? Because in the last two weeks, our council had an empty seat every time _we_, the other members of the council, had a meeting."

"Look, Jack…"

"Nah-ah! No excuses. If I have to be on those boring meetings, and you know how much a like them, then you have to be there too, got it?"

"Jack, I just got caught in work here, that's all."

"Daniel, if you were missing for a day or two, that would be fine, but this looks more like you lost the gate address of Earth for crying out loud."

"Okay Jack, I'll come back. Soon, I promise," Daniel replied.

"Oh no, you're not getting back soon. You're getting back with me right now!"

Daniel sighed, "Fine."

"Good," Jack said, finally having vented his frustration. "So, how are things going here?"

"Great actually. This place has become very busy as of late. Many have decided to stay in the Sanctuary too," Daniel replied, as the two of them began moving back towards the gate.

"You didn't have any problem with security?" Jack asked.

"A few occurrences, but nothing serious. There is always some smartass who tries to sneak a weapon in here, but they were all scanned and caught the moment they step through the gate."

"Good. What about that marketplace we made here for people to sell and buy stuff and to meet others? Any incident there?"

"Nope. They pretty much all got the idea of what this place is all about. They come here, they do their business, whatever it is, and they leave."

Jack looked around, nodding, "I still don't get why we've built this place, but at least it looks like there are those who want to stay."

"You mean, in the Sanctuary?"

"Yes Daniel, in the Sanctuary. I don't get what's so appealing so they would want to come here?"

"It's simple really. By coming here they feel safe and don't have to worry about their past life."

"You mean, those that _have _something to worry about from their past life? I have the feeling this place will turn into a refugee camp for criminals who are running from somebody."

"Maybe, but I met many who came here to learn about enlightenment and how to release their burdens."

"And you think what Liam thought you will help you teach them?" Jack asked.

"Well, he is the foremost expert on the subject. He did ascend on his own," Daniel said.

"Daniel, you didn't answer my question."

Daniel sighed. "It's just that his method is too… clinical. There is no spiritual component, and he stating that there is no chance anyone here can ascend without help also doesn't help."

"Well, if he thinks nobody here can ascend on his own, and he is the expert, then it's probably the truth. Besides, he made a very valid point here."

"He made a point?"

Jack looked at Daniel frustrated, "I'm not sure if I should even tell you."

"Tell me what?"

"Daniel, if people who come here perceive the Sanctuary just as a mean to ascend, then they won't be able to ascend, ever. This must become a way of life for them, and not just a means to an end."

Daniel remained silent. Liam told him that nobody here could ascend, probably because no one who wanted to ascend should focus on doing just that, but more on finding a new path, a path of enlightenment, no matter if they were to actually succeed in ascending. Now the only problem was - _How does Jack know this?_

"And you know this how?"

"I have spent enough time with Liam to know that often he says something to make you think, and not to simply give you the answer," Jack said.

"That… does make sense. Ascension should not be the goal, enlightenment should," Daniel replied thoughtfully.

"Okay, now enough of that crap," Jack said.

"And the Jack we all know and love is back again. For a moment I became worried." Daniel said, smiling. It started to feel weird hearing Jack talk about ascension and enlightenment.

Jack turned to look at Daniel with an eyebrow raised. "Meaning?"

"Um… nothing."

"Anyway," Jack said, to steer the conversation, "the council needs to meet so we can discuss the security measures for those hippies in the Peace Corps when they go… out there… doing, whatever they do,"

"Oh, so that's why you need me back on the council."

"No-no; not just for that. But yes, I need you to convince the others to send the least of those hippies possible."

"Why you think I would even be on your side on this Jack?"

"Daniel, they want to send them on at least a dozen planets here and the same in Pegasus. Those planets don't have any defenses against orbital strike, and no matter how much security personnel we detach to them, we are still sending them on risky planets, with the possibility of getting targeted."

"Jack, there is no way I'm against sending Peace Corps to help people."

"I'm not saying we shouldn't. I just think we should… minimize the number of missions. You know, to some more manageable numbers," Jack said as he started dialing the gate. "Maybe I could then spare even a few ships to provide protection from orbit."

"How much of a minimizing are you talking about?"

"Five planets here and five in Pegasus."

"Ten here and ten in Pegasus," Daniel said, the same moment as the gate kawooshed.

"Six."

"Ten."

"Daniel, this is a negotiation. You need to _lower your number_," Jack said as he followed Daniel towards the open gate.

"Still ten," Daniel said as he stepped through the gate.

"Crap! Why did I even bother coming here?" Jack said to no one, he as well stepping through the gate after only a brief moment of hesitation.

* * *

**Please leave a review. they are always appreciated.**


	23. Retaliation

**Author's note: **After a week with the flu, I'm finally able to post another chapter. Not sure if I'll be able to post a new chapter each week from now on. Sorry about that, but other obligations have piled up, so, don't know how much time I'll have to devote to the story. Plus is a real pain in the ass after working all day switch to writing the story (my work keeps me in front of my computer all day long, so when I'm finally done, usually I want to spend the rest of the day away from it, maybe even get out). Still, here comes a pretty long new chapter.

**Reviews:**

**Apocalyps24: **Thanks

**EvilTheLast: **In essence, yes. The Aschen are alive because there are other enemies to worry about. If the SGA could bring their entire attention on them, they'd be lost. Good one about thinking they are the center of the universe. Something nobody ever, ever thinks about themselves ;)

**Beyogi:** Change is difficult, especially when there's no clear path that would allow the Aschen to win. They are weaker then the Terrans and they know it, but capitulating is not an option.

**Nashakell: **Well, I think you can imagine how this two months will be for Jack... and for the Nox. Besides, I think it is time to return to the main plot and start solving some things.

**charly17201: **No need to skip the notes. My replies to question give answers to things that had already happened and I don't answer questions that would give away parts of the story that I haven't yet written.

**pking10: **Thanks. I'm glad to here you like the story so much. As far as Earth getting behind the Terrans, I think China joining the Terran Alliance is a step in the right direction. Still, the true goal is for everyone on Earth to become Terrans, which is a very long term goal. The task of breaking down borders between countries, unifying laws from hundreds of them, a unique monetary system and creating a centralized government for the entire planet is a massive undertaking in which results are seen after decades of work. We all know how slow politics works, and if I try to speed up unification in my story, the only result would be the story being less believable. The goal is clear. It will just take more time to accomplish it.

**AlexanderD:** I'm glad you found the time to start reading the second book. This way I can get your taking on it before is completed :)

**Josiah275:** Sorry 'bout it. It seems I have less and less time to devote to the story, but I'm still set on finishing it, no matter what. It will maybe just take a little more time.

**Thanks to my beta, and to you for reading this story. Stories don't have much sense if there're no one to read them.**

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Chulak  
**_stardate: 2871.56_

Things have changed on Chulak. The planet, except for being very important to Teal'c and Bra'tac, and therefore revered by all Jaffa as the birthplace of the Jaffa rebellion, had also seen many battles in recent years. First Apophis retaliated when Teal'c defected and then Gerak used Chulak to teach Teal'c and Bra'tac a lesson.

Not that they would have the chance to see the fruit of their labor, as now both were dead.

Still, this last attack on Chulak made the Jaffa realize how they needed to change things. There were millions of Jaffa living on the planet, and the planet needed to be protected against both, threats coming through the gate and those from the sky. Protect the planet against incursions through the gate was easy enough to achieve. The gate had been placed in a guarded facility built underground, with a forcefield to keep any unwanted visitors from simply stepping through and onto the planet.

The second problem wasn't that easy to solve. They had to place several ground cannons - the Jaffa version, very similar to those made by the Terrans - as well as keeping a constant military presence, with several battalions' worth of soldiers and with a full Wing of Death Gliders. While the ground cannons were more than enough to give pause even to the Ori, they did have a massive flaw.

They were very bad against smaller vessels.

Five hundred thousand miles from the planet Chulak, massive hyperspace windows flashed into existence, delivering a battle group of Aschen warships. Except for a few cruisers, the smallest type merely used as escort, the rest was made of the largest Aschen warships. Those were the carriers.

Opening up their hangar bays, the ships began disgorging strange smaller craft. Those looked nothing more than black boxes, twenty meters in length, five in height and eight in width. Hundreds of those boxes quickly exited the carriers, on their way for the planet.

The three Hat'ak vessels in orbit, detected the newcomers and did what they were trained to do. As the Ha'taks began their approach toward the offending Aschen fleet, the hundreds of black boxes began to move as well on an intercept course towards the three Ha'taks.

Entering weapons range, the boxes opened their port and starboard sides - if they could be called that way - and launched five missiles each, the number of missiles fired quickly climbing to more than a thousand in total. The Ha'taks fired their weapons trying to hit as many of the incoming missiles as they could, and they did manage to diminish their numbers, but still enough of them continued on their course. One after the other, the 5 megaton missiles slammed into the three Ha'taks' shields. For one brief moment, the Jaffa believed their shields would hold, but only to have the brief moment pass. Three bright flashes of light signaled the destruction of the Jaffa fleet in orbit.

The black boxes, without any sign of caring or slowing down, continued inside Chulak's atmosphere. As they descended inside it, hundreds of fireballs were seen by the Jaffa on the ground.

As they approached the ground, they began slowing down, stopping completely once they reached not more than one mile distance from the surface. On the underside of the large black boxes, new ports opened, letting loose of more than fifty drones each, with a total of over ten thousand of them, all on their way for the capital of Chulak.

The invasion of Chulak had begun.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Dakara  
**_stardate: 2872.36_

"T! How many times I told you to place fast firing plasma cannons in orbit of your planets?" Jack said in frustration.

Teal'c turned to face O'Neill with a raised eyebrow, "None."

"I didn't? I was sure I had. It doesn't matter. Why didn't you?"

"We did not believe they would be necessary; not on Chulak," Teal'c said, mystified why Chulak was such a magnet for trouble. The planet had nothing of value in terms of natural resources and most importantly it didn't have any military installations that would turn it into a juicy target.

"Alright, let see what we can do now. What's the exact situation?"

"There are five Aschen carriers and their escort keeping their distance from the planet. Inside the planet's atmosphere there are hundreds of strange black vessels looking like boxes floating above the surface of the planet. Those boxes have released more than ten thousand drones, and those are our biggest problem. The warriors on the planet are having troubles fending off their attacks."

"Are they so difficult to destroy?"

"They are O'Neill. It takes many hits from our plasma rifles to drop their shields, even when we are able to hit them, and their weapons can easily kill a Jaffa," Teal'c replied, not liking the ease and precision with which those accursed probes were killing Jaffa. "Currently the troops on the ground have been ordered to only defend their positions under cover of buildings."

"Those things could turn out to be the biggest problem to get rid of," Jack stated. "How many ships you have in the area?"

"Twenty Ha'taks are traveling to Chulak as we speak. It will take them little over five hours to reach the planet."

"That's good. The first thing we need to do is to get rid of the carriers and their escort. Once we achieve space superiority, we can start taking out those black boxes from the sky. I have already sent two assault carriers. Those will be perfect to fight the black boxes or anything they can throw at us," Jack said, thinking how, opposed to the Jaffa Ha'taks that were lacking any point defense systems that could stop a barrage of missiles, their assault carriers had enough plasma repeaters, railguns, and drones to stop all of them. "Then we only need to find a way to fight those probes of theirs."

"It will not be easy to deploy troops on the planet. Those drones are also creating some kind of jamming field, not allowing your beaming systems to work."

Jack sighed. The beaming system was becoming less and less useful, with practically every enemy they were facing finding a way to block it. "Teal'c, I suggest your ships don't use the usual tactic when approaching the carriers."

"What are you proposing?"

"From the planet, you are constantly receiving information on where exactly the carriers are," Jack said. Seeing Teal'c nodding, he continued. "You need to take advantage of the fact a Ha'tak is the only ship we know of capable of firing on all sides."

"You think our ships should exit in the middle of the Aschen fleet and immediately engage them in battle."

"I do. No matter on which vector your ships exit hyperspace they don't have to turn before firing. This way you'll have the advantage of starting the fight first and possibly from all sides. Also, I'll come to Chulak with the Enterprise."

"We will have more than enough ships to destroy their fleet."

"Oh, but the Enterprise is not coming to fight, or at least that's not the main reason for coming. You'll see. Also I want you to leave one of the carriers alone. We will take care of that one."

"You want to capture it. For what purpose? You already have one of their ships?"

"There probably are more of those black boxes on board; I don't think they have launched all of them. I want to see what those things really are, because they scare the living crap out of me. Anything that can be built in such numbers and that can launch a thousand nuclear missiles does. Teal'c for some reason they didn't target the planet with those missiles, and we can feel lucky because of it. So many nuclear missiles could have easily turned the planet into a wasteland."

Teal'c as well knew what kind of destruction so many nuclear missiles could have done. "Why do you think they have not done so?"

"I'm not sure T. Maybe they didn't come to Chulak just to blast the planet and kill everyone. There is a chance this is also an intel gathering mission to see the kind of defenses you usually employ."

"It is possible, but if that is true, then this is only the beginning. They are using Chulak as a testing ground before their real strike."

"Alright, let's get moving then before they change their minds, shall we?"

The two friends went their separate ways, with Jack beaming back on the Enterprise and on his way to Chulak.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Chulak  
**_stardate: 2872.92_

Five hundred thousand miles from the planet Chulak, the Aschen fleet floated in space. Aboard one of the carriers, on their version of a CIC, several Aschen monitored the situation unfold on the planet.

"What is the latest data telling us?" an Aschen asked.

"It is still too soon."

"We don't have much more time. The Jaffa fleet will be here soon."

"If they do, we will leave. We will still receive data from our units on the planet even if we do so."

"How long will it take?"

"Unknown. The Jaffa on the planet are already showing symptoms, but the effectiveness of our bioweapon on the Jaffa using Tretonin is still inconclusive."

"What about their ground cannons?"

"Our probes have taken detailed scans. We have enough to precisely determine their real strength."

As the first Aschen wanted to ask something else, alarms started blaring on the bridge.

"What is happening?"

"The Jaffa have surrounded us with twenty Ha'taks. They have exited hyperspace on all sides."

"The Jaffa are once again surprising us with their tactics," the first Aschen stated calmly.

"There is also a Terran battleship above us. We should leave."

"Agreed. Inform the fleet we are leaving."

"Done."

The Aschen flagships turned, speeding up away from the engagement. Finally reaching the necessary speed the ship opened a hyperspace window, only for it to close before the ship could enter inside.

"What happened?"

"Unknown at the moment. Other ships are reporting the same anomaly in their hyperdrive engines."

The first Aschen also noticed something else on his monitor, "Why is no one targeting our ship?"

The second Aschen noticed that fact as well, but his monitor was showing now more, "What is that golden stream coming at us?"

"Never seen that kind of weapon before," the first Aschen replied, as their ship shook violently.

"They are breaching through our shields. They are some kind of… drone weapon."

"How can they bypass our shields?" the same Aschen asked, the moment before the power went down.

"They have disabled our power distribution system. We have lost control of the ship."

"Now we know why they didn't target our ship. They want to capture it," the Aschen said, a moment before bright beams of light deposited Terran Special Forces inside the CIC.

The next thing he sensed was the feeling of excruciating pain, just before losing consciousness, the same as every other Aschen on the CIC.

* * *

Outside, the battle was quickly turning toward its end, with Aschen warships breaking apart all around them.

As the battle was over, Rak'nor decided it was time to contact the Enterprise. On his main display, the image of open space was quickly switched with the happy face of O'Neill.

"_Good job, Rak'nor,"_

"Thank you Ancestor O'Neill," Rak'nor replied.

"_Um… yeah, about that Ancestor part…"_

"Yes Ancestor?"

"_Please lose it. O'Neill is just fine," _O'Neill said. Apparently the rumors of him healing Bra'tac had spread.

"As you wish O'Neill," Rak'nor replied. "Were you able to infiltrate the Aschen carrier?"

"We did. We are bringing some very unconscious Aschen on board our ship as we speak."

"That is great news. If you need help with interrogating the prisoners, I'm more than willing to aid you."

"Uhh… yeah, I'll keep that in mind. Listen, our assault carriers will be here in a minute. Once that happens, we are going to proceed towards the planet together. Is that alright with you?"

"Of course. Our sensors have detected the strange Aschen vessels taking defensive position in orbit of Chulak."

"We know. Look, one of our teams inspected one of these things still on board their ship. It is unmanned. This means those things have probably been preprogrammed to take defensive positions once they lose connection with the rest of their fleet."

"Can you order them to stand down from the Aschen carrier?"

"Maybe in time we could, but I'm not comfortable with the situation on the planet. I think we need to act now."

"I agree. Every minute we wait, more Jaffa are dying on the planet's surface."

"Good. Our carriers have just reached us. We are ready to proceed."

"We are ready as well."

"Good. Let's finish this, then the two of us can go celebrate another victory," Jack said, knowing that it was almost a tradition for the Jaffa to go celebrate after every victory.

"It will be an honor. Rak'nor out."

As the connection ended, the twenty Ha'taks, two Terran assault carriers and the Enterprise began their approach toward Chulak. It didn't take long for the hundreds of Aschen black boxes to react. The same way as before, the craft fired a wall of missiles on course for the approaching allied fleet.

The response was all ships opening fire from their plasma batteries, railguns, repeaters, as well as three golden streams from the three Terran ships. Massive explosions erupted every time an Aschen missile was intercepted and shred to pieces. This time, no missile was able to reach any of the allied ships.

With the missiles destroyed three new golden streams erupted from the Terran ship, quickly proceeding toward the hundreds of Aschen box-ships. The strange vessels fired from their point defenses, but the drones easily dodged the incoming plasma, just before piercing the vessels and exploding inside.

Unfortunately, the destruction of more than a thousand missiles and the hundreds of box-ships meant the three Terrans ships had also exhausted their drone reserves. It meant the more than ten thousand Aschen flying machines would have to be taken care off in some other way.

As the two assault carriers took position above the planet, it was time to deploy their troops.

From the two carriers, hundreds upon hundreds, quickly numbering in almost a thousand of what looked very similar to Goa'uld escape pods but bigger, began raining towards the planet's surface. The drop-pods accelerated like bullets, only to engage their retro thrusters once they were very close to the surface. Impacting the planet, the bulkier than usual pods, began opening their canopies.

From each of the drop-pods, five Cylons exited, taking defensive position. Some of them were carrying missile launcher, others the Terran machine guns, while some, the newly developed and bulky plasma rifle. The problem of the plasma rifle being so big and heavy would probably make things difficult for any Terrans soldier, but the Cylons were barely feeling the weight of the weapon.

On board the Assault Carrier, droves of operators with neural interfaces on their heads were operating five Cylons each. It wasn't that difficult to operate so many of them since the only command instruction they had to give was search & destroy any flying drone they could find.

As the Aschen drones detected the new enemy, they began their approach towards the horde of Cylons. Missiles, bullets and plasma bolts began flying to the sky, the Cylons uncaring for their own safety. Aschen drones started exploding under the onslaught from the ground, only to retaliate in kind. The problem with the Aschen drones though was that they were meant for killing humans and not machines. It took several hits to disable a Cylon, capable of firing even when riddled by hits. The drones have also for the first time found their match in their ruthlessness and clinical precision, and even surpassed by the firepower of the Terran weapons and rate of fire.

As the number on both sides was thinning out, the Jaffa on the ground began exiting their hiding places, taking the fight back against the dreaded flying machines.

"Fighting fire with fire," Rak'nor said while watching the fight through the frontal display.

One of the Jaffa on the bridge turned to face Rak'nor, not understanding what he meant. "I do not understand."

Rak'nor turned to face the Jaffa before explaining. "It is something I heard while training with the Tau'ri. They are using machines to fight machines. This way they are not risking their own soldiers against mindless machines the cowardly Aschen are using."

"I do not like this type of battle. It is unnatural, and has no honor," the same Jaffa said.

"I agree, but losing life against mindless drones is not any better. The Aschen have not showed their faces in battle even once. Cowards!" Rak'nor said.

"They will have to face us in battle once we breach on their world and deploy troops on the ground. There will be nowhere to flee or hide then."

"I agree. The only question is when this is going to happen."

"Master Rak'nor, the Terrans are deploying their other machines of war with their drop ships. We should begin deploying our troops as well."

"Yes, inform the…"

"Master Raknor, we have an urgent call from the Enterprise, I'm connecting it now."

"_Rak'nor, do not send troops on the planet," _Jack said the moment the connection was established.

"May I ask why?" Rak'nor asked. Something must be wrong if O'Neil said that.

"_The moment our vehicles exited our transports on the ground, they detected a bioweapon in the air. If you deploy your troops, they will get infected. Notify you people on the ground to stop sending troops through the gate too."_

"I understand, but will we be able to stop the Aschen flying drones with what we have on the ground?"

"_We will Rak'nor. Our vehicles are all insulated again biological agents. With the Cylons and Jaffa already on the planet, we have more than enough to win this fight."_

"Do you know the makeup of the bioweapon?"

"_Not yet Rak'nor, but our scientists are analyzing it as we speak. We will soon know what it is."_

"Very well. I would appreciate if you could inform me the moment you know something."

"_That goes without saying Rak'nor. The moment I know something, you'll know something."_

"Thank you. Rak'nor out."

Rak'nor really didn't like what was happening on the planet's surface. There were millions of Jaffa on the surface, and they were now all infected. The Aschen continued with their coward tactics as usual, killing entire worlds without even showing their faces. Anger filled Rak'nor thinking of such cowardice and complete disregard for life. Even the wretched Lucians had never used such means against their enemies, but apparently the Aschen were not above it.

The fight on the planet was going well from what he could tell. The Terrans and Jaffa on the ground were more than able to take care of the Aschen drones. At least he could take comfort in the fact that no Aschen in the system made it out alive, as well as no ship.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy - Outskirt of Chulak's System  
**_stardate: 2873.26_

One small cloaked Aschen scout ship floated in the void of space. Aboard the small ship, several Aschen watched intently at the events unfolding in the system.

"Our ships have been easily destroyed, and one of our carriers has been captured."

"This is most unfortunate. Why were our ships unable to leave the system?"

"Uncertain at the moment. We have detected a subspace signal originating from the Terran battleship. Maybe that has something to do with our ships' inability to escape into hyperspace."

"If the Terrans have such means, we are in a worse position than we thought. We will have to reevaluate our tactics. What was the weapon the Terrans used to disable our carrier?"

"Unknown, but it appears capable of bypassing our shields with ease."

"Another advanced weapon we were unaware of. And from what little we know of the Asgard, they have never used such weapon."

"It is possible one of their other allies has given them such a weapon; the Nox perhaps, or maybe the Guardians."

"It is possible. The problem is we have no defense against it, not without studying it." One of the Aschen said, but this was the first time they saw the Terrans use such a weapon, which meant they were probably very protective of its secrets. The chance of getting their hands on it was minimal, if not nonexistent.

"How is the fight on the ground progressing?"

"Not well. Less than twenty percent of the drones are still able to fight. They will be able to destroy them all in less than an hour."

"Do we at least have what we came here for?" the Aschen in command said, almost sounding angry. It wasn't anger, but it wasn't far from it.

"We do. We have collected enough samples to know how effective the bioweapon is, and we will be able to improve it even further."

"Then we can leave this place. There is nothing more we can do here."

The Aschen scout quickly turned, opened a hyperspace window and disappeared inside it. They needed to inform their leaders of what happened here today. They would not be pleased.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**_stardate: 2895.36_

Admiral Jack O'Neill, the temporary High Councilor of the Terrans council, at least until the other Jack was back from his reprieve with the Nox on Heliopolis, stood in the council's chambers with Klaus, Sam and Daniel. They were waiting for Liam to show up.

"Is he late or is it just me?" Jack asked.

"Jack, he was in the Andromeda galaxy when we called him, and even with the Supergate active, it still takes more than five minutes."

"We should have sent our people without waiting for him to show up," Jack said.

"Oh yeah? And who would be the one to tell him we went without him afterwards?" Daniel added.

"Good point," Jack replied.

Waiting in silence for another minute, a bright flash of light deposited Liam straight in the Council's chambers, "I'm here."

"'bout time!" Jack said.

Liam raised an eyebrow, "What's the hurry?"

"We found an Ori ship landed," Klaus said.

"Oh, that's the hurry. All right, I'm ready. When do we leave?" Liam said.

"Troops are ready, and we…" Jack began saying, but the next moment he, as well as anyone else, was beamed on the bridge of Liam's ship. "… are also… oh, we are here already."

"What about our people?" Klaus said.

"They were beamed as well," Liam said. "Klaus, what are the planet's coordinates?"

Klaus moved to the console near Liam, selecting the planet's location. The next moment the ship lurched into hyperspace.

"Good, half an hour and we are there," Liam replied.

"I don't have my combat armor!" Jack yelled.

"That's not a problem… since you are staying on the ship."

"Why would I stay on the ship?" Jack asked, irritated.

"There is no need for you or anyone else from your council to go down there."

"But you are going?"

"Of course. I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Eh, you see, that's simply not fair. I'm never having any fun anymore," Jack said.

"The only reason I'm going is because I'm the best to connect with the ship's neural interface."

"Are you sure you can do it?" Sam asked.

"Positive. From the Ori ship we captured more than two years ago, I was able to understand how the priors control the ship."

"But you said the system was damaged in the battle?" Sam replied.

"It was, but enough was still intact for me to understand the system. Most of it at least," Liam said.

"And you think you'll be able to access the information we need?" Sam said.

"I do. I just need enough time to find the logs of the last time they activated the Supergate. Inside the logs should be enough data for us to be able to dial their supergate," Liam replied. They needed the information if they wanted to reach the Ori galaxy. Without it, they couldn't dial the Ori supergate.

Confident in their ability to infiltrate the Ori ship, the small group began the last few preparations before they reached the planet in question. It was a rare thing to find an Ori ship on the ground, the only way to board the ship still intact, and they couldn't risk damaging it before they got the needed data.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Location of The Landed Ori Ship  
**_stardate: 2895.43_

The ship exited hyperspace on the outskirts of the system in question, immediately activating Merlin's very useful shifting device. The ship became invisible and untouchable, pushing forward towards the fourth planet in the system. It took half an hour more, since they had to exit hyperspace so far out to not be discovered, but once they reached the fourth planet they were immediately able to see there were two Ori ships orbiting the planet. It wasn't ideal to have more Ori ships, but as long as the one on the ground didn't have its shield powered, the mission was still on.

The ship slipped out of the shifted dimension, only for a brief moment, just enough time for the mixed Terran and Guardian troops and for Liam to beam inside the Ori warship on the ground. While teams spread out throughout the ship to secure key locations on the ship, like the ring platforms and engine room, Liam beamed in front of the small bridge. His task was to access the system while a full squad of Guardians watched the entrance door.

As the door opened, a storm of plasma bolts hit the lonely prior on the bridge, killing him instantly. Without waiting any longer, Liam entered the bridge and sat on the only chair in the room. He concentrated in order to connect to the ship's computer.

The next moment, he found himself standing in a massive labyrinth with data stores and subroutines all around him. The representation of the Ori system looked blurry and redshift to him, probably the result of the system being meant for priors and not for his physiology, but he didn't care. Maybe he would have a headache later, but the important thing was for him to be able to enter the system and find what he was looking for. It was time to go to work.

While Liam was working on the bridge, teams all around the ship were fighting the Ori followers with the occasional prior thrown into the mix. Four teams had the task of reaching the shield generator and shutting it down. The moment they had beamed inside the ship, the shield went up and if they wanted to leave once their mission was completed, they needed to drop the ship's shield once again. As one of the most important sections of the ship, the shield generator's room didn't lack in defensive force. Dozens and dozens of followers and the occasional prior were there to defend the generator.

As the mixed group of Terrans and Guardians approached the last corridor where the generator was, they were barely able to get back behind cover before a hail of energy weapons soared through the corridor. Destroying the generator, apparently, wasn't going to be such an easy thing to do.

One of the guardians took a chance and tossed a plasma grenade at the followers. The result was him getting hit by countless hits, his personal shield depleted and his left shoulder with a gashing wound, and the grenade detonating with the spreading explosion being blocked by one of the priors in their midst.

"Okay, we need a better idea," one of the Guardians said. "Anyone?"

"I do," a Terran soldier said, just before pulling the pin from his flash-bang grenade, "Be ready."

He then tossed the grenade in the corridor, he as well getting hit several times before he managed to get back behind cover. The difference here was that not even the priors could stop the intense light and deafening sound the grenade would create.

The next moment, the corridor was awash with light, the Terrans and guardians immediately taking the opportunity and shooting and tossing several more grenades of various types. The allied soldiers were able to score several hits with the number of followers quickly diminishing. The only problem now was the same one prior that blocked the first grenade and that, apparently, was stubbornly immune to the anti-prior weapon.

Liam was moving through the various corridors following every clue he could find on where the log files were. It wasn't easy, and he had definitely underestimated how different the neural interface the priors used was. He was having more and more trouble concentrating and he was already having a splitting headache. Still, there was no turning back now. They wouldn't get a second chance; that was for certain. He also needed to hurry. There was a good chance the Ori would understand what he was trying to do and there was always the possibility they could block access to the system.

Finally, Liam found a repository that looked as what he was looking for. Searching through the data inside, he found the right entry of the ship accessing the supergate.

"Gotcha!" Liam exclaimed.

The sensation he felt next, when he was suddenly disconnected from the neural interface was discomforting, but nothing in comparison with the pain he felt when his body unceremoniously slammed into the frontal view of the bridge. Liam opened his eyes, still a little blurry even in the real world. Still, it was enough to see who it was.

"That was really uncalled for Adria," Liam said, slowly getting up, "You should work a little more on how you treat your guests."

"Who're you? And what are you doing here?" Adria asked, making it sound more like an order than a question.

"Manners Adria, you need to learn manners," Liam said, now finally able to stand straight.

"I won't ask again," Adria threatened again. "Or would you like to end up like those soldiers outside?"

Liam inclined his head, looking at the few bodies he could see through the still open door, "I see. I should tell you right now that it is not a very good idea to make me angry."

Adria was pissed. With a sudden thought, Liam began rising from the floor, with his neck tightening, "I could say the same."

Liam was at least a feet above ground, and he could sense his throat being crashed by an invisible force. He smiled. "Nope. Not enough."

Adria was shocked to see the man smile. Even more when she saw him slowly return to the ground and looking as if she wasn't exerting any pressure on him. It finally donned on her, "You are the Alterran the Ori warned me about."

"I am Adria, and your tricks don't work on me, as you can see for yourself," Liam said.

Adria was feeling uncertain at that moment. Who was he? What kind of threat did he represent? And most of all, why wasn't he fighting back?

"Adria, why are you doing this? Why can't the Ori just leave us in peace?" Liam said.

Adria snorted when she heard those words, "Leave you in peace? You know as well as I do that there cannot be peace between our two people. Not after what you did."

"Um… you'll have to refresh my memory, because I really don't know what you're talking about."

"You can pretend to be all righteous, but you very well know what your kind did to us five million years ago."

"Five million years ago? Five million years ago the Alterrans were here in this galaxy. We didn't do anything to you."

"Your plague wiped us almost all out. I must admit, we never thought you would have resorted to such means to win the war against us; we always thought it was somewhat beneath you."

"Plague?"

"Don't play ignorant with me! Your race sent us a plague that even to this day no one knows how to cure. Only our ascended brothers were able to help our people ascend before it was too late. And now that we are here, you want peace?"

"Adria I…"

"We will take over this galaxy and when we do, we will be powerful enough to rid this universe of your kind forever."

"Adria I think…"

"And there is nothing you can do to stop us."

"Oh, for crying out loud! Would you please shut up for a second and listen?" Liam yelled. "We didn't send you any plague. Five million years ago my kind suffered a plague that killed almost all of us."

"You are lying!"

"Adria, I was there. Five million years ago I watched my family and friends die from the disease. Don't tell me what is true or not, because I witnessed, firsthand, the horrors the plague had brought to my people."

Adria froze. She was still angry, but there was something in this man's words and the passion and sorrow with which he had said them that made her uncertain, "I as well have genetic memories of those events five million years ago."

"I'm not saying you're lying Adria, I believe you when you say your people were struck by a plague, I'm just saying that it wasn't us. Actually, when your priors started using that plague of their making, we started believing that you were the ones who had sent us the plague. There are too many similarities to be just a coincidence."

"The original plague was used as template for creating the prior's plague."

Liam moved slowly toward Adria and the exit doors without saying a word.

"Where do you think you're going?" Adria said, blocking the way out.

Apparently, this fight was not over yet, at least as far as Adria was concerned. "You do not want to fight me," Liam said looking straight in her eyes.

Adria saw the intensity with which this man was looking at her. She saw his eye flare with an intense blue color, the sight turning her blood cold. At that moment, she knew this man could kill her with little effort if he wished so. She awkwardly faltered her gaze, moving a few steps to the side and allowing Liam to pass.

Liam went out of the room, stopping and looking at the dead Guardians on the floor Adria had killed. He turned back, looking at Adria once again, "Who Adria? Who could have created that plague that neither the Alterrans nor the Ori could cure?"

Adria again remained silent, not knowing how to respond. The only thing she was certain of was that this man wasn't lying.

"This is pointless. We are killing each other for something neither of us did. And the worst part is that the humans from both our galaxies are suffering the most, completely oblivious of the reason why." Liam said.

The next moment, he received word the shield was down. Several bright flashes of light picked up the lying bodies of the guardians on the floor. Liam looked one last time at Adria, just before another flash of light beamed him away too.

Adria finally began breathing again. She had simply stopped breathing when Liam stopped to look at the dead bodies in front of him. At that moment, she was certain he was going to kill her. Instead, he had simply asked her _who._ He asked her who was then responsible for the plague that killed so many. And she didn't know, but now at least she knew it hadn't been the Alterrans or the Ori. She needed to contact her brothers and sisters as soon as possible, but first, she needed to access the computer system and see what this Alterran had accessed. They didn't destroy the ship, which meant they had come here to gather information.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aboard an Ori ship  
**_stardate: 2895.67_

Adria was walking hastily to the stargate chamber. She needed to contact her brothers and sisters as soon as possible. Entering the room, she immediately dialed the gate. A few moments later, and the connection was established with the hologram of the Doci appearing in the room.

"_**Adria, what news do you have to report?"**_ The distorted voice of the Ori was heard.

"Two hours ago, one of our ships was boarded," Adria said.

The Doci remained frozen for a second, _**"Was the ship destroyed?"**_

"No, they were not after the ship; they just wanted to access the ship's logs."

"_**Did they succeed?" **_the Doci asked.

"They did. The Alterran did."

"_**Were you not able to stop him?"**_

Now it was time for Adria to remain silent for a short moment, "No."

"_**I see."**_

"There is more. The Alterran told me his race was not behind the plague that struck our people five million years ago."

The Doci again remained silent, which made Adria look confused, _**"We are aware."**_

"You are?"

"_**We suspected for a long time the Alterrans were not behind the attack."**_

"Why wasn't I informed of this?" Adria asked puzzled. Her genetic memories had nothing of the sort.

"_**It was irrelevant for your mission to know. And it still is."**_

Adria didn't know how to answer. She was all for getting the galaxy rid of the Alterrans, their archenemies from even before the plague struck her people, but she didn't particularly like the selectiveness of the genetic memories they gave her. If they didn't give her such important information, what else were they keeping hidden from her?

"_**Why did the Alterran want the ship's logs?"**_ the Doci asked.

Adria snapped from her reverie, "I'm not certain. They probably wanted to find our movements or the location of the second supergate."

The Doci took her explanation, remaining thoughtful for a moment, _**"Perhaps."**_

"Could there be another reason?"

"_**There is… change within the ascended Alterrans. We do not know why or the exact scope of the change."**_

Adria didn't know what that meant, and she had the slight feeling the Ori didn't either. "Do you know how the plague that decimated us, and apparently the Alterrans as well, started?"

"_**No. There is no evidence of how the plague started. It is this lack of evidence the reason why we believe the Alterrans are not behind it."**_

There was some logic in that statement. From what she knew of the ascended Alterrans, they would have never helped spread the disease, which meant if the Alterrans had done it, it had been done by those from the lower plane of the time, and there was no way the ascended Ori would not have found at least some clue on how the plague had started if they had been responsible. Also the fact that the Alterrans had been infected as well, pretty much exonerates them from any suspicion.

"My brothers and sisters, do you not believe that if some third party sent us the plague five million years ago and they were able to hide their actions, that we should focus our vengeance on them and not the Alterrans?"

"_**We do not know who sent the plague, but we know how to fight the Alterrans. Even if they are not responsible for the plague, they are still our enemies. Always remember that Orici,"**_ the Doci said, looking a little pissed at Adria.

"Of course; I only wanted to point out that there is a good chance of us having to fight an enemy even more powerful than the Alterrans in the unforeseeable future, that's all," Adria replied, also a little pissed for being scolded when she was just pointing the obvious.

"_**We understand. How is the war proceeding?"**_

"Slowly, but steady," Adria replied. Apparently they were done with the whole plague ordeal and her having received only certain memories. "Even though the Terrans and their allies were able to free Quiril, the threat of detonating the stargate on the planet's soil worked as a deterrent for future interference. We were able to conquer three more worlds without the Terrans moving a finger. At this pace, we will have the necessary followers in a little over a year."

"_**We are glad your plan worked, but the timetable is too long. We need to be able to face the Alterrans much sooner."**_

'_Oh, come on! What do you want from me? Miracles?' _Adria thought. "I do not believe that to be possible. It takes time to bend the will of humans from this galaxy. They have lived for too long under false gods to be so easily swayed to worship us as their gods."

"_**Nevertheless, the sudden change in behavior of the ascended Alterrans is of great concern to us. We must be ready as soon as possible."**_

Adria sighed inwardly, "I'll see what I can do."

Adria watched the Doci nod and then disappear. She didn't like how this conversation had gone; she didn't like it at all. She was supposed to be the beacon of light the humans of this galaxy would follow and not to turn into a tyrant they would fear. And if she began pushing humans even more than she already was, there was a good chance that was exactly what would happen. They after all, didn't need blind obedience. They needed it to be their choice to worship them, and their choice to allow them to sap their core energy. She also didn't like the odds if she had to face the Alterran in battle. That man had shown powers that went beyond what she knew the Alterrans could do at the time prior to their ascension. She was missing something here and she didn't like it.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**_stardate: 2895.73_

"Is it me or is Liam late?" Jack asked. "Again!"

"Not sure why though. He said he needed to check something and that he would be right down," Sam said, seeing Daniel shrug, as well not knowing what had detained him.

"The important thing is that we were able to retrieve the data we need," Klaus said.

"That's true," Jack said.

A bright beam deposited Liam in the room, "Sorry for my tardiness. I had to help revive those soldiers that were killed, and then I received an important message."

"I hope nothing bad," Jack said, but he had almost some kind of sixth sense when it came to bad news, "Please tell me it's nothing bad."

"I can't," Liam replied, sighing. "Fifty Senari warships attacked the Vargas central space station. They were all destroyed.

"Crap! Why can't a good day stay that way for more than five minutes," Jack said frustrated.

"And that's not all," Liam said looking at Jack. "The central space station has sent a probe through the central anomaly."

"Oh, for crying out loud! Like we don't have enough to worry about."

"Does that mean we can expect the Vargas to show up?" Klaus asked. "Ahead of schedule?"

"I'm afraid there is a good chance of that," Liam replied. "It is imperative we deal with the Ori once and for all, now more than ever."

"Do you have an exact plan for that?" Daniel asked.

"Not exactly, no. With the possibility of the Vargas coming, I'll have to leave enough ships in the Andromeda galaxy, which means I'll have fewer ships to take with me in the Ori galaxy. You and the Asgard will have to protect the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies on your own from now on."

"I think we can manage, although, now the Asgard are worried about that strange race in the Pegasus galaxy that attacked our space station."

"I wasn't aware they were such a problem that even the Asgard would be troubled by them?"

"It's not them that troubles the Asgard as much as how their fighters were able to go through the BC-304's shield without impediment. From what Thor told me, the fighters were specifically designed to mimic Asgard shields."

"This is strange. Did the Asgard have any previous contact with that particular race?"

"Not to their knowledge, no. Besides, the Asgard were never that active in the Pegasus galaxy, not if you don't count the last few years," Jack replied. "They are clueless on how these aliens know so much about their shields, the same as we are."

"Is there a possibility that they know of Asgard shields because they are used by your ships?"

"We thought about it, but not one of our ships went missing. And the tech to bypass them is not something that you can come up with in a day. They needed to have that tech for a long time. Anyway, this little problem has made the Asgard extremely worried and they are sending more ships in the Pegasus galaxy to get to the bottom of it. Thor also believes that with the upgraded hives lurking around, we will need the extra firepower there anyway."

"Which means you are alone in defending the entire Milky Way galaxy from the Ori, Aschen and Lucians, plus you have your hands full with the Leptinians in their galaxy. Oh, this is just great," Liam said.

"That's exactly what I said, but hey, at least we can say that it can't possibly get any worse than this, can it?" Jack said.

As Jack finished that sentence, Walter entered the room, "Sir, we have a problem."

Jack shrugged. "Why did I say that? Why can't I just shut up?"

"What is it Walter," Sam asked as she saw Jack wasn't about to even ask.

"Pangara was just attacked."

"Who was it? The Ori?" Sam asked.

"No, not the Ori," Walter said with a sour expression on his face.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Pangara  
**… o_ne hour earlier._

Captain Mikhail Udinov liked flying the F-302. In his long carrier in which he had spent countless hours flying Sukhoi-33 in the Russian Air Force, he had never felt such freedom as now by flying the F-302; even this older model, the F-302a. When the Terrans began production of the new vipers, much better than the old ones, they started replacing the older models, first those on board their capital ships, and then those stationed on Earth, Asura, Tollana and Terra Nova, and they still had a lot to go before they could start replacing those placed on other, to them, less important worlds.

One such world was Pangara. A planet where the Terrans had an embassy and what could barely be construed as a military base, all in one. The reason they had placed a military base on Pangara was because they were teaching the people on the planet about their military, as well as selling them old airplanes that they needed to teach them how to operate. Among the many various planes from Russia, US, France and whatever other countries had something the Pangarans would value and want to buy from, there were also three F-302s to as well show the Pangarans what the next generation of fighters could do. After all, in the near future the Pangarans would reach the necessary level to be able to service the more advanced fighters and when that happened, the Terrans would sell them those planes too. The Pangarans were now salivating at the opportunity of getting their hands on an F-18 Hornet and on a Sukhoi-33, but maintenance of such planes was still beyond their current means, and the price of the craft was also not far behind. They would have to wait a little longer before getting those planes.

"_Bandit, this is base,"_ the comm. unit on the F-302 cracked.

"Base, this is Bandit. What is it?" Mikhail replied.

"_We have detected a bogey on our radar. It is entering orbit above your location. You are advised to activate your ECM system." _

Mikhail immediately pushed a button. The craft immediately activated its electronic countermeasures as well as going into stealth mode, minimizing its emissions. Mikhail then looked up through the canopy of his cockpit, attempting to see what it was that was coming his way.

High above, he saw a trail left behind by something entering the planet's atmosphere at high speed.

"Base, this is Bandit. I can see the trail, but I can't see what is making it. I suspect it will reach my altitude in approximately two minutes and at least fifty miles ahead of me."

"_Bandit, your orders are to follow the unknown craft. Reinforcements are on their way."_

"Acknowledged base," Mikhail said, continuing to watch the burning trail above him slowly getting closer.

As he had predicted, the burning trail soon disappeared once whatever it was that was making it had reached lower altitudes. Mikhail pushed his craft faster in order to catch up with the unknown craft. It took him almost two more minutes to reach it, with the chased craft steadily diminishing its altitude.

Mikhail was finally able to discern what the bogey was.

"Um… base, this is Bandit. The bogey is a… Wraith scout ship," Mikhail said.

For a long moment there was no reply from base, "Come again Bandit?"

Mikhail sighed. They didn't believe him. "Base, the bogey is a Wraith Scout ship, I repeat, bogey is unmistakably a Wraith Scout Ship!"

"Bandit, this is base. You are weapons free on bogey, I repeat, you are weapons free!"

"Finally!" Mikhail said, activating the craft's onboard weapon systems. He didn't wait for long before the small rectangle on his HUD aligned with another turning into a bright green one. He pushed the firing button and two missile streaked from underneath his craft, quickly gaining on the Wraith scout only ten klicks ahead.

The scout must have detected the missiles, because it suddenly banked left trying to evade the missiles. It succeeded in evading one, but not the second. The impact blew the left rear side of the scout, the craft quickly losing altitude and leaving a smoking trail behind. A minute later the craft crashed on the ground, burrowing a trail more than three hundred meters long.

"Base, this is Bandit. Bogey is down. I'm sending the crash coordinates of the Wraith craft."

"Acknowledged Bandit, good work; we'll do the rest. Reach orbit and monitor if we have more Wraith to worry about."

"Acknowledged base, Bandit over and out," Mikhail said.

Meanwhile, on the ground, the little Terran force had been put on high alert. It wasn't much though, a few squads of army troopers with only two APCs at their disposal. They quickly entered the vehicles, speeding in the direction where the Wraith craft had crash landed. Moving at a steady speed of almost sixty miles per hour, the two APCs were quickly diminishing the distance between them and their target.

"How much longer?" The co-driver of the lead APC asked.

"Five more minutes," the driver replied.

"Wraith, can you believe it?"

"No, not really. I thought those bug people can't make it to this galaxy?"

"I thought that too; probably the same as every other Terran."

"That's not good man. We really don't need the Wraith here."

"Well, apparently we have no say in the matter. Check the map; we should be near the coordinates."

"Yeah; few klicks and we are there," the co-driver said, focusing straight ahead for a moment, "Wait! What's that?"

The driver looked in the direction where his co-driver was looking, three hundred meters ahead and slightly on the left. There was a large field and somewhere in the middle of it, he could see maybe a dozen figures moving. Actually, they were definitely running rather than simply walking, and they were doing it pretty fast, "Aren't those Wraith?"

"I'm not sure. They do look Wraith, but why are they running?"

"Beats me. Wait!" the driver said, seeing something on the end of the field from where the Wraith were running away. When he saw what it was, he knew why the Wraith were running, "My god! These Pangarans are nuts!"

The other man looked at what must be at least a full battalion of Pangarans charging at the Wraith. There were jeeps, tanks, APCs, people on foot, and even the occasional Pangaran on a horse. "They must have mobilized everything in the vicinity. This is totally nuts. What are they trying to do, stomp them to death?"

"It looks like the Pangarans decided this was a great opportunity to test their new equipment. What's that sound?"

The other man listened intently. Suddenly, his eyes grew in size, "Choppers. Look!"

From the same direction from where the… _assorted mob_ was coming, four Hueys, helicopters that had been used during the Vietnam War, could be seen. As they flew over the Pangaran troops, they quickly reached the fleeing Wraith, opening fire from their onboard machine guns. It was a very disconcerting thing to see the Wraith fleeing in such a way, but maybe it would at least show them that the humans from Milky Way weren't the same as those in the Pegasus galaxy.

"Well, I'm not sure we are even needed anymore. Those machine guns cut down most of them already. I think there's only one Wraith still alive."

"Yeah. Still, it would be a good thing if we could at least catch that one and see what he knows, don't you think?" the driver said, smiling. "Maybe we could offer him asylum from the Pangarans. Do you think he would accept?"

"I'm sure he will. If those Pangarans get their hands on him, he's as good as dead, or worse. Cut through here. Maybe we can intercept him before the Pangarans catch up with him," The co-driver said, pointing at a small opening into the woods.

"Are you sure the Pangarans won't shoot at us too? They seem very eager to test their equipment, no matter on whom."

"Let's hope they won't."

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**… _back on Terrania_

"The Wraith ma'am," Walter answered to Sam's question.

"Uh… come again?" Jack said.

"The Wraith sir. A scout ship was just grounded by one of our F-302s on Pangara."

Jack turned to look at Liam. Liam shrugged, not wanting to say anything. Jack turned again, looking at the rest of the people in the room. Same reaction. "Is there any survivors we can interrogate?"

"Uh… yes sir. One survived… the Pangarans; barely might I add."

"Walter? What happened?" Jack asked noticing the strange way Walter had answered to his question.

"Well, in short, the Pangarans went ballistic sir. They mobilized everything." Walter said.

"Everything? For a downed scout-ship?"

"Yes sir. There is talk they even mobilized their only submarine."

"Oh, for crying out loud. So what happened to the Wraith?"

"They were taken by a full battalion of Pangarans armed with whatever they had. They were eventually gunned down by machinegun fire from four helicopters. One Wraith managed to escape and he surrendered to our troops stationed on the planet."

"Surrendered?"

"Yes sir. The captain on sight told the Wraith, and I quote 'Come with us if you want to live'. The Wraith complied immediately. The captain said he never saw a Wraith so shaken."

"Well, I can imagine the stupor the Wraith must have felt when what he thought was food turned against him. It's like… cows turning against us."

"So, we now also have the Wraith here to worry about," Klaus added.

"They must have somehow improved their hyperdrives and hull regeneration beyond what we had predicted they would."

"So, there's the Ori, the Aschen, the Lucians and now the Wraith to worry about in the Milky Way alone, all coming for us," Jack said thinking about what they could do. Suddenly, he began smiling wickedly.

"What?" Sam asked. She knew Jack would never smile like this if he didn't have something in mind.

Without answering, he turned to face Klaus, just before getting up from his chair, "Klaus, we have work to do," Jack said, quickly leaving the room.

Klaus remained seated for a moment, looking at the other people in the room, all with quizzical looks. Then, resigned, he too got up and followed Jack out of the room.

"Something bad is going to happen, I can feel it," Daniel said.

"Yeah, I know," Sam replied. "When Jack smiles like that, nothing good ever comes out of it."

"Well, apparently the meeting is over, so I'm going to go work on the final preparations before I leave for the Ori galaxy," Liam replied before leaving the room in a bright flash of light.

The others looked at each other. Apparently another meeting did indeed end in yet another unorthodox manner. They all got up and left the room.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**


	24. The Vanir

**Author's note: **So! Once upon a time, I wrote a bunch of chapters in advance in order to let me publish my story with a regularity of one chapter each week. Unfortunately, those chapters were published, and other obligations had prevented me to write new ones at the speed I had once dearly hoped I could achieve. And since there is no indication that those other obligations will subside any time soon, I'm afraid I won't be able to keep up with the planned _"one chapter each week"_ schedule. Something you are probably already well aware.

Still, my stubborn nature simply refuses to leave a work half done, which means, I intend to finish this story no matter how long it takes. And as obligations goes, there will certainly be times when I_ will_ have enough time to write more. Maybe not right now, but somewhere in the near future for certain. I must admit, it bothers me too, more than I thought it would, not being able to keep up with the planned schedule, mostly because I found out I very much like writing this story. Ah well, what can you do, right? Work comes first, I guess.

**StargateFFWriter:** Soldiers die in any war. Celebrating a victory, also serves to honor those who gave their lives to protect their people. At least in Jaffa opinion.

Well, I don't know about putting Adria and humanity in the same sentence, but it is at least certain that she wouldn't like being misled by the Ori very much.

Yes, the Pangaran are using Earth tech. At least a level they can understand, build spare parts, and soon even build.

**Sajuuk:** Of course there will be more tech coming, but there's still a lot to go on, and I have to spread it through the entire ark of the story. There're still many chapters in this book, and there's one more book after that. Well, Jack is a sneaky, devious guy. So yes, you are on the right track.

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with Adria, but I can say that her future and the future of the other Ori will definitely be different.

**EvilTheLast:** Well, you're about to find out in this chapter.

**Stormwolf3710:** Well, the Aschen do have different ways of fighting. How successful they'll be is still something we need to see.

I do intend for battles to change in the future due to newly discovered weapons, but that's for the future where I'll start paying more attention at distances in space. No matter how fast a ship is or how quickly it can accelerate, star systems are still large enough so that it could take hours to travel inside it, which the stargate series had discarded for the most part. Which means they have discarded the type of long range engagements where even powerful energy weapons cannot possibly be effective. ;)

**Neeros: **I'm happy to hear you like it. As far as how powerful I've made the Terrans, the only thing I have to say at this point is that I had to do it… because of what is coming ;)

I was fully aware of what kind of mixed reactions the sudden appearance of another Jack, _yet _another Jack, would create. But, as you mentioned, I too have thought the hilarious situations those two together would create, completely compensates for the initial weirdness. And believe it or not, there is a long term reason why there're two of them. A reason that will be clear only in the distant future.

As far as grammar error goes, I'll try to minimize them. Still, not my first language and even with a beta reader it is bound for a few errors to sneak somehow through when the time to publish comes.

**HellsMaji:** I think that even Earth's public wouldn't be very supportive of the Terran Alliance if they turn out to be genocidal maniacs even when the Aschen are concerned.

**Kami No Raijin:** Nope! Before the introduction of the ENI generator, the Alterrans used massive energy collectors placed near massive suns to charge ZPMs, and it still took years to charge one ZPM. Plus, if it was possible, the Ori would not go to such length of placing their supergate near a black hole if a star was enough to do the trick. For now at least, or you use a black hole, which Liam still doesn't know how, or with 20 zpms concentrating their power output.

**Quirky: **Not exactly what I had in mind. What Jack thinks will be revealed in this chapter.

**AlexanderD: **I'm still not certain where I'm going with Adria. I have several concepts in my head, but I'm certain her future and that of the Ori won't be the same. In a way, not matter how much it looks the Pangarans' reaction was too extreme, I really think that it was also very human.

As I've already said in another reply, I have to make the Terrans powerful for what is coming :)

**Marisares: **Well, you are definitely close to what Jack is planning.

**Stephenopolos: **The fortress shield limits the maneuverability of a fleet greatly. They have to coordinate surrounding satellites to keep a perfect bubble, which means enemy ships could _dodge_ pretty easily. Plus the shield gets depleted with each impact. But still, in a way, you have a point there… I think. :)

Why Rodney and John are not descending will be revealed too.

**Enjoy the new chapter!**

* * *

**Andromeda Galaxy – Aboard Liam's Ship  
**_stardate:2901.27_

On his ship, Liam was tirelessly working on one of the many consoles in his lab. He was trying to maximize the size of the area field that was supposed to prevent any ascended being from harming their ships once they entered the Ori galaxy. The task wasn't easy. He knew that creating a barrier capable of stopping the Ori from passing through it simply wasn't enough. Ascended beings had other powers that could harm their ships even without having to come aboard one of them. In theory, the ascended beings could manipulate large amounts of surrounding energy, creating strong electromagnetic storms or even direct energy attacks, all powerful enough to destroy any ship he had at his disposal. Including his.

In order to prevent this from happening, he needed to create an area field large enough so that no ascended being could come even near one of their ships, and if an ascended being was already inside the field when the device was first activated, the field needed to repel the ascended being. So far he was able to create a sort of interdiction field capable of keeping ascended beings at approximately one light-hour from his ship. He was certain it would be more than enough since it meant no ascended being could inhabit the same star system where an active device was, but he didn't like the amount of energy the device needed to create such field.

It meant only larger ships could use such a device at great expense, while cruisers would have to completely rely on the protection of those larger ships. The thought of a stranded cruiser automatically being at the mercy of the Ori wasn't very high on his list.

'_Ah well, apparently there's nothing I can do to change that,'_ Liam thought.

As he deactivated the console in front of him, Liam sensed the presence of Aenea, his ascended wife, "Aenea, so nice of you to come for a visit."

"Hi Liam," Aenea replied.

"Came to wish me good luck?" Liam asked.

"Yeah… that too," Aenea replied, while looking around thoughtfully.

It was enough for Liam to know Aenea was looking if there were more ascended beings in the vicinity. He quickly tapped a few buttons on the console, and a barrier formed around his ship. "Now we are definitely alone."

"That's good. Although, I don't really like the feeling of being trapped inside your ship."

"Well, it's this or having other ascended beings listening. Your choice."

"It's fine."

Liam nodded, waiting for Aenea to continue talking, but he quickly understood she wasn't about to. "Aenea."

"Yeah?"

"I can tell you have something on your mind. So… spill it!"

"It's not that easy and you know it!"

"I know, but I also know that you came here in order to tell me something, so waiting won't change anything."

Aenea nodded in understanding, "What are you planning to do once you get to the Ori galaxy?"

"Not sure," Liam said truthfully. "I think I should start by destroying any shipyards they have there, as well as fight any ships they have already finished building before they decide to send it here."

"And what then?"

"As I said, not sure, but I think that if I'm able to show the humans in the Ori galaxy that their masters are not gods after all, they might slowly begin to lose faith in them and, with that, stop giving them their energy."

Aenea nodded pensively, "And what if the Ori, thinking they are losing their followers, decide to attack us immediately?"

"Is there anything I _can_ do? I mean, I can't fight them directly. The only other way to fight them would be to start killing their followers in order to diminish their strength quickly, but I'm not prepared to do that," Liam explained, but then he thought a little more why she was asking that question. "Why are you asking? Wait! Is this what the Elders think I'll do once I'm there?"

"Well, we know that the Ori are already strong enough to face us in battle on more or less equal terms, even without having the humans from the Milky Way galaxy worshiping them. Liam, there's a chance they could win."

"So that's why Illium was recruiting humans on Earth."

"Yes," Aenea replied, apparently not very fond of the idea, "but even by ascending a few humans here and there, victory is still far from assured."

"Aenea, I don't like the idea of going around the Ori galaxy killing humans just because they worship them. On the other hand, it is true that if the Ori win, everything is lost," Liam sighed. "I have to admit, it is a nice conundrum."

Aenea thought about it for a few moments in silence before replying, "Maybe there is a better way."

Liam looked at his wife with a raised eyebrow, "Go on."

"Have you ever heard of the Ark of Truth?"

* * *

**Milky Way galaxy – PX7-230  
**_stardate:2901.88_

The nimble SF-308 Hades class ship exited hyperspace and cloaked immediately before anyone could see it. Slowly pushing forward, the ship made its way to its intended target. Settling into high orbit above the lush and green planet, the ship's crew slowly went to work.

"Sir, the scans have detected more than ten thousand life signs on the planet's surface," the sensors officer informed the captain.

"Thank you. Prepare a raptor-"

"Sir, those life signs are not human."

"What? What are they then?" the captain asked confused.

"Wraith sir. They are all Wraith."

"What the…" the captain began, stopping in midsentence. "This planet was populated by humans. Where are they?"

"Don't know sir. We are not registering even one human life sign on the planet."

The captain thought about what could possibly be happening here. Two days ago, the Terrans received word from several worlds stating that whoever went on this planet, usually to make trade with the locals, had never returned. And since those races didn't have the capabilities necessary to check the planet from space, they asked the Terrans to investigate instead. "Ensign, pull from our database what we know about this world and its inhabitants."

"Should I look for anything specific, sir?" the ensign asked, while already working on the console in front of him in order to retrieve the related data.

"How many humans were there on the planet that we knew of?"

The ensign worked on the console, quickly retrieving the asked information. "Uh, it was a relatively small population, sir. According to the database, around ten thousands humans."

Hearing the ensign's response, the captain sighed. "So, a world that once had ten thousand humans now has ten thousand Wraith. Wonderful."

"Sir, I'm detecting a Wraith cruiser orbiting the planet," another crewmember said with apparent urgency.

"Why didn't we detect it before?"

"The ship was on the far side of the planet, sir."

"Let's not risk it," the commander said, thinking how the improvements the Wraith were doing meant there was a chance they could have increased their sensors resolution too. "We completed our mission. There's no need to be discovered. Helm, take us away from orbit and the Wraith cruiser. We are leaving."

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**_stardate:2902.17_

"…it must be the same retrovirus that infected our people in the Pegasus galaxy," Jack said to the assorted group of people in the conference room.

"It looks that way. The Wraith are turning humans into Wraith even in this galaxy," Daniel replied. "This is not good."

"Other worlds have gone dark too, the same way as this one. We should check those as well, just to be sure the Wraith are behind it," Klaus said. Apparently, sending people to trade with other worlds wasn't safe anymore and he knew this could create panic on other planets.

"I have already dispatched a few ships to check those planets too," Jack replied. "But that won't solve the problem. Did we hear anything new from Beckett?"

"We did. He was able to further improve the Hoffan's drug. Seventy five percent of those who take the drug will develop immunity to the Wraith virus and will remove the possibility of being fed upon," Sam replied.

"What about the rest?"

"In fifteen percent of the cases, the cure doesn't take at all, while in the remaining ten percent of cases, the use of the Hoffan's drug means certain death."

"I still don't like those odds," Jack replied begrudgingly. "We can't order our people to take a drug that has a ten percent mortality rate, much less ask other races in this galaxy to do the same. And fifteen percent of people not becoming immune, it still means a large percentage turning into Wraith if infected."

"Beckett's still working on improving the cure further, but I don't think we'll ever get a hundred percent cure. Not any time soon anyway," Sam said.

"I don't get why the Wraith are targeting worlds with smaller populations in the first place. Wouldn't it be easier to infect a planet with millions of people?" Dmitri asked.

"Not sure. Maybe it has something to do with their need to still have more humans to feed on than having a vast army," Jack replied.

"We know they worked on creating human clones for this exact purpose. Why not use clones for feeding their army?" Dmitri asked.

"We know that creating clones is an energy intensive process. There's a good chance that even with the ability to clone humans, they can't create enough of them to feed millions. Also, having millions of hungry Wraith could backfire on them. Instead of creating an army, they could have a civil war on their hands. If you think about it, this is the reason why the Wraith had ended up split into several factions in the Pegasus galaxy and they eventually ended up battling against each other for food. Too many mouths to feed and too few humans to feed upon," Sam explained her theory.

"Good theory," Jack said. "This could work in our favor."

"How?" Sam asked.

"Well, we know they will target only worlds with smaller populations. We need to create an early warning system by monitoring those planets."

"Jack, there are thousands of worlds. We can't send even one warship on each of them, much less an entire fleet in case they show up with a hive or something," Sam said.

"No, but we can place spotters on the ground. If we know the moment a planet has been infected, we can give them the cure. Even with the ten percent mortality rate, it is better than having them all turned into Wraith. And people who have been infected, I don't think they will mind the odds if the other option is to turn into a Wraith," Jack said.

"Yes, but if you place spotters, they could get infected too," Klaus said.

"I agree, that is a problem. But maybe we can use those who have already been cured in Pegasus for this. We could even hire Pegasus' natives who are immune to do the job. Those runners and others like them."

"That could actually work. That is, if we find enough of them to place them on so many worlds," Klaus said.

"Beckett is also working on a test that should be able to tell us if someone can take the Hoffan's drug without risk or not. It's not ready yet, but Beckett's confident he can do it," Sam said.

"Wow, for once there's actually good news," Jack said, looking around and waiting for the other shoe to drop; some news that would screw everything up… any moment now.

For once… it didn't.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Genii Planet  
**_stardate:2902.47_

Dressed in the usual Genii military uniforms and with rifles gripped with both hands, the four soldiers guarded diligently the stargate on one of their most important worlds. With the Terrans having placed defensive satellites, securing the gate had become even more important as it was the only place through which an attack could come without warning.

"This is the worst job ever," one of the soldiers said in frustration.

"I hear you. Every single day to spend eight hours on guard duty is far from my definition of fun. But what can you do? Somebody has to do it," another soldier replied.

"This planet is important to our people. We must be vigilant and ready to repel anyone who wants to take it from us," another, _more serious_ soldier replied.

"Yeah-yeah. We've been vigilant for months, and the only thing I have to worry about is those pesky mosquitos biting me all night long," the first soldier replied as he slammed the back of his neck with his palm, killing yet another mosquito.

"This conversation is pointless. We can continue discussing this all night and we'll still have to come back tomorrow and guard the gate the same way we do now," the fourth soldier said.

"You are right. There's no point in-" The first soldier, the one that had started this entire conversation, began replying, but was stopped by the sound of the gate symbols spinning and locking in place. "It appears we have a visitor."

The four soldiers took defensive positions, one behind the DHD, two behind some nearby trees a little further back, while the fourth, the serious one, decided to remain less than ten meters in front of the gate. Having taken their positions, all pointed their rifles, waiting patiently for the spinning to stop and the event horizon to form.

As the connection established, but no visitors came through, the soldiers continued waiting patiently, already thinking how maybe somebody had misdialed and decided to not go through the gate. They all stiffened the next moment when they saw gray aliens coming through in pairs of two. Without thinking twice, the Genii opened fire, quickly downing the first few aliens that had stepped on their world, but there were more coming immediately behind those that had fallen. One of the aliens managed to fire his energy weapon, hitting the lonely Genii who had, _intelligently,_ decided to remain in front of the gate. Two more aliens came through, immediately firing at the Genii hunkered behind the DHD and killing him on the spot. By now, there were almost a dozen of the grey aliens in front of the gate, and the other two Genii still standing behind their cover knew they had no chance of winning this fight.

One took his radio out from his jacket, "Base, this is Salas. We have hostiles coming through the gate! Too many to be stopped! We need reinforcements now!"

"_What kind of hostiles and how many?" _the reply came through the radio_._

"Dozens of those… gray aliens. More are coming through."

"_Understood. Reinforcements are on their way. Do what you can."_

The soldier rolled his eyes before looking at his teammate, "Which is nothing."

"You're right. We can't do anything here to stop them. Let's retreat," the other soldier said.

"Good idea," the soldier replied, quickly moving backwards while firing. It didn't take long before both turned and ran as fast as they could.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Babylon One  
**_stardate:2907.53_

On the massive Terran space station, a group of people were all gathered in a small conference room, all around an oval table. Woolsey looked around at the concerned faces of the people present. Among them, Radim was the one with the most worried expression. Not that the others looked much better.

Apart from Radim representing the Genii, also present were Shiana of the planet Santhal, Kelore of the planet Lathira, Dimas of the planet Riva and a few others representing other human races.

As Woolsey noticed that everyone was seated and eager for the meeting to start, he decided it was time to begin, "President Radim, if you please, we would like to hear from you what happened exactly on one of your planets."

Radim took a deep breath before beginning with his narration of events, "Ambassador Woolsey, as I have already informed you earlier, one of our planets was attacked a few days ago by those gray aliens. They simply came through the gate guns blazing."

"President Radim, I'm aware of that fact, but the thing that I don't understand is why they attacked that planet. As we all know, that particular planet is where you are building your first interstellar ship. Am I correct in that assumption?" Woolsey asked.

Radim looked around the table, not liking the idea of those people knowing where they were building their first space ship. After all, they were not on very good terms at the moment. Especially not after they had formalized their alliance with the Travelers. Still, there was no point in hiding that fact when there were Terran satellites _protecting_ the planet in question. He was more than certain the real reason was to spy on them. "You are, Ambassador. We have been building our first spaceship there for the past four months." He glanced at the people around the table and saw no one was fazed by his admission, which meant they all already knew.

"Then, how is it that, as you said before, these gray aliens didn't attack your shipyard? It doesn't make any sense."

"I don't know what to tell you," Radim replied truthfully and slightly pissed at this entire situation. "When they started attacking the closest village on the planet, we thought it was only the beginning and that, once they were done with the village, they would simply proceed to the shipyard and our underground installations. Instead, they simply took some of the civilians who survived the attack and took them away through the gate. Why they kidnapped those people, I really couldn't say," Radim said, really not understanding the motivation behind such strange attack.

"We have sustained a similar attack as well on one of our worlds," Kalore said. "The attack lasted less than an hour and except for killing whoever opposed them, they took a few dozen random people and left."

"It happened on our world as well, but who they have kidnapped wasn't random. Not in my opinion at least," Dimas added.

"What do you mean?" Woolsey asked.

Dimas watched all eyes turning toward him. "We have witnesses who are saying the grey aliens used some kind of device to scan them. They witnessed others being taken, while they were left there as if they were not what they were looking for."

"This is really strange. Why would they target only certain people while leaving others?" Woolsey asked, puzzled.

"And why are they coming through the gate? We know they have ships at their disposal," Kalore asked.

"This I know why," Woolsey added. "As you know the Terrans and the Asgard are searching for them and we have an active satellite network covering a considerable region of this galaxy and that it is capable of detecting a hyperspace window forming. If they don't want us to detect their movements, they must limit their traveling to regions where we don't have satellite coverage, which is far away from any planet inhabited by humans. There is also the fact that we placed defensive satellites in orbit of many of your worlds. They probably don't want to get into a firefight with us, which leaves them with only the gate as a safe method for reaching your planets."

Radim rolled his eyes. Just another thing he didn't know about the Terrans' capabilities. "I wasn't aware you have the capability to detect ships traveling through space on such a scale,"

Woolsey wanted to reply something like '_you don't know a lot of things we are capable of'_, but refrained from doing so, "We are, President Radim."

"I see," Radim replied thoughtfully. Apparently building their first spaceship wasn't going to help them as much as he thought. Not that he planned to take the Terrans head on, but some spying of other humans, and especially those who had signed an alliance with the Travelers was what he had in mind. Now it was clear his plan was not going to work.

"This is not important right now," Dimas said, giving a harsh glare at Radim. "We need to find out why they are kidnapping our people and a way to stop them from continuing doing so!"

"You are completely right Regent Dimas," Woolsey said, as well not liking Radim's reaction. "The Terrans have already provided weapons to your respective people-"

"That is not enough, Ambassador Woolsey!" Dimas said.

"Well, if you had let me finish, you would have found out that I agree with you," Woolsey said, clearly showing his irritation at being interrupted. Seeing that Dimas had settled down, he continued "As I was trying to say, in addition to weapons that we have already provided to you, we are prepared to deploy troops on your planets to help protect them. But you have to do your part too."

"Meaning?" Dimas asked.

"Meaning that we can't be the only ones who defends you worlds. You have to be the ones to provide most of the soldiers, because we can't protect so many worlds alone. We simply can't send companies of soldiers on each human inhabited planet," Woolsey explained.

"Why do you not provide us with your irises to block our gates? Wouldn't that be easier?" Kelore asked.

"Maybe easier yes, but it would also be a very bad idea. If hundreds of worlds suddenly started installing irises, many people would die while traveling. You all know that you shouldn't even try to gate to Atlantis because there is a shield present protecting the gate. But what would happen if all gates on your worlds had irises? How would trade be done without people getting killed?"

"We could give traders access codes," Kalore replied.

"Yes, and then you have the same problem as if you didn't have an iris at all because you'd have to give the access codes to every single trader, which means it would be very easy to get those access codes, wouldn't it?"

Kalore nodded in understanding, "If everyone has the access codes then the irises are of no use at all."

"Exactly. Your trade would also suffer from it even if somehow you managed to make it work, because there is always a chance of getting killed while traveling through the gate with an iris on the other side. Tell me Mister Kalore, would you travel to another world without knowing if they had maybe changed their codes? Would you risk your life in such a way every time you need to step through a gate?"

"I suppose I wouldn't," Kalore said, conceding that point.

"Good, because I wouldn't either," Woolsey said, before continuing, "So, we are planning to send troops to help you protect your gates. Furthermore, the Asgard are checking the gates on the planets where your people were kidnapped in order to find out what was the last address those gray aliens have dialed. We will try to find out where they have taken your people and if possible try to get them back, as well as try to find out why the gray aliens are kidnapping specific humans in the first place."

"You can find out which address was last dialed?" Radim asked, again preoccupied by what these people were capable of.

"Yes, President Radim. We can find out the last _several_ addresses that have been dialed by the DHD," Woolsey added, again not liking what was currently troubling Radim the most. The man should focus more on the kidnapping of his people and much less on what the Terrans could and couldn't do.

Woolsey watched Radim not saying anything; just standing there and musing about the information he was getting. Apparently the Genii were still set on becoming the main force in this galaxy, and the information he was getting today didn't sit well with him. Woolsey was about to continue with the meeting, but a beam of bright light deposited Thor beside him, in the process startling the other people in the room. Except for a few occurrences, like when the space station had been first opened, it was very unusual for the Asgard to show themselves to any race outside of the Second Great Alliance.

"Ambassador Woolsey I have just been on the planets from which people have been taken from," Thor said, going straight to the matter at hand.

"What did you find, Supreme Commander?" Woolsey asked.

"We found there is only one planet that was dialed recently from all planets where the abductions had occurred. One of our ships went to the planet in question, but found no sign of the kidnapped people there. It is my belief that they have been taken to another location via ship," Thor explained.

"How do you know they have been relocated by ship and not through the gate?" Woolsey asked.

"We checked the last few addresses the gate had dialed, since it stands to reason we would find one planet having been dialed multiple times. Since this wasn't the case, my belief is that the planet was used as a sort of staging area before taking people away via ship. The location of the planet is also far away from any human planets and from where you have your satellite network capable of detecting any ship entering hyperspace," Thor explained in details.

"Which is a perfect place for their ships to take people without being detected," Woolsey replied, more to himself than to Thor.

"This is my belief, yes."

"But this means there's no way to find where those people have been taken," Woolsey questioned.

"Perhaps not."

"I don't understand?"

"It is true that we have lost the trail that could lead us to the kidnapped people and the perpetrators of such vile act, but there is still a chance the aliens will return on that planet to use it to kidnap more people. We have left a cloaked ship in orbit of the planet. If they return, we will know."

"Well, let's hope they'll return, because if they don't, we have no other means of finding them," Woolsey added.

"My hope as well. For that reason I would like to ask you if you could perhaps detach a few teams of your Special Forces to my command in case we have to fight them on the ground. Or do I have to ask Doctor Weir?"

"No need. After the attack on this station, we have increased the number of soldiers stationed here. I will inform Captain Lorne of your request."

"Very well. I will be waiting aboard my ship," Thor said, immediately beaming away.

Woolsey watched as Thor disappeared, then turning to see the many face looking at him expectantly. "Well, as you just heard, we've found the planet where your people had been taken."

"Yes, and we also heard our people are not there anymore and that you have no way of tracing where they have been taken next," Kalore said frustrated.

"I must admit, this was an unfortunate development, but I'm still hopeful the aliens will return to that planet and that the Asgard will be able to find out some clues to where they have been taken next."

The people in the room nodded, but there was no confidence in them they would actually find anything.

"Well, I think we can end this meeting now. I need to go speak with my people. If there are any news, I will inform you immediately."

Again, receiving another nod from the people in the room, Woolsey took off on his way to his office.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Aboard Kvasir's Ship  
**_stardate:2907.93_

Kvasir had been the one chosen for this ungrateful task of sitting in orbit above this desolate planet, waiting if maybe the gray aliens suddenly decided to show their faces again. A futile exercise if someone asked him. The chances of the aliens using this same planet after so much time had passed since the last abduction was so small that in his opinion this was a complete and utter waste of time. His time no less.

No matter, Kvasir had always been a good Asgard, following orders diligently and without complaining, at least not openly, and this mission was no exception. He had spent an entire day already, waiting with his ship cloaked for the remote possibility of those strange aliens showing up. Although not liking this particular task, he was nonetheless worried, the same as the entire Asgard Council was. A race capable of bypassing their shields was not something the Asgard liked having, and the fact that they didn't even know how they could do it was even worse. The Asgard had one of the strongest and most advanced shields in existence, and some race having the ability to bypass them with, as demonstrated, such ease meant they had intimate knowledge of the inner workings of their shield generators.

Kvasir was also a very skeptical Asgard when the Terrans were concerned. He was more than certain that these aliens had somehow gained such knowledge through them, as the only plausible explanation for a race in the Pegasus galaxy besides them to have it. The Asgard had never spent any time in this galaxy, which meant the aliens could not have stolen such knowledge from them. It was simply yet another piece of evidence telling him how bad the idea to share their technology, _any_ technology, with the Terrans really was.

As Kvasir contemplated on how he would raise this question on the next council meeting, his ship's sensors began registering an opening hyperspace window. As more results began coming in, he soon had enough information to know that from the hyperspace window, only ten light-seconds from his position, three ships had exited, immediately setting course for the planet. Apparently his mission wasn't such a waste of time as he thought.

As Kvasir kept his ship cloaked, in an attempt to monitor the aliens' behavior without being noticed, his expression changed into one of utter puzzlement, for an Asgard at least, when the three ships changed course towards him with their weapons and shields brought online. With the speed of thought only an Asgard can achieve, Kvasir came to several conclusions at the same time. The first conclusion was that the aliens were apparently capable of detecting Asgard ships even while cloaked. The first conclusion then led him to the second conclusion which was that, since the Asgard had never given their cloaking technology to the Terrans, it meant the Terrans were not responsible for the aliens having intimate knowledge of Asgard technologies. The third conclusion he made was, unfortunately, that he would not have enough time to raise the ship's shields before the many blasts the aliens had just fired would reach him. Although, he still wasn't certain which conclusion bothered him the most, the second or the third, he quickly decided to divert all of his energies in solving his current predicament.

As he had accurately predicted, he was unable to raise the shields before several blasts hit his ship, with explosions rocking it violently. The moment he did raise the shields, he noticed that several emitters had been damaged, almost eighty percent of his ship's offensive capabilities weren't working anymore, there were hull breaches on a few places and that he couldn't even flee because the hyperdrive went offline due to the damage the ship had sustained. All this was telling Kvasir that he didn't have many options available to him at the moment, but he still needed to do his best. It was a matter of Asgard honor to always do the best under whatever circumstances, no matter how precarious those circumstances were. And these _were_ precarious circumstances.

The first thing he did was to quickly reconfigure the ship's shield matrix in order to use the remaining emitters as efficiently as possible, which wasn't a lot, but maybe it would give him a minute or two more. The second thing he did was to instruct the ship to use the remaining weapons, which consisted of one remaining heavy plasma beam and two ion pulse cannons, to fire at the affronting ships. He then instructed the ship to start evasive maneuvers with the still operational sublight engines. The last action he still had time to perform was to send a distress signal with the logs of everything that had happened since the aliens had showed up.

At one point, it looked as if things were not that bad after all. His ship had begun firing from the few remaining weapons, scoring a few good hits even with the ship's aim being a little off, probably as another consequence of the damage inflicted before he had raised the shields. The ion cannons were not doing a lot of damage. The enemy ships' shields were apparently capable of blocking the phasing nature of the ion cannons with ease, but the single heavy plasma weapon did provide a pause as one of the enemy ships got hit, resulting in the ship's shields being pierced and extensive damage having been done to the alien ship's hull. The aliens must have understood quickly that even one of these beams was powerful enough to cripple their ship, because after that they had begun keeping their distance, away from the arc of fire of the weapon. It didn't mean though the aliens had decided to leave him alone. It only meant they needed to employ some other tactic.  
Which they did.

Swarms of fighters exited the two still intact alien ships, on a straight course for the lonely O'Neill battlecruiser. Kvasir knew what they intended to do. They did it to the Terrans, so there was no reason to think they wouldn't do it to him too. His more than just suspicions were soon confirmed when several fighters rammed his ship, evidently capable of going through the ship's shields as if they weren't even there. At this moment, Kvasir felt even more frustrated than he had been so far. The reason why was because at this exact moment he wanted nothing else than to have a ship more like what the Terrans had, with internal defenses and most of all with security personnel strolling through the ship's corridors. Instead, he had nothing of the sort, with even the beaming system that could possibly help in such scenarios currently being offline due to damage the ship had previously sustained.

'_Oh, my sorry ass is really in for a treat,'_ Kvasir thought.

His suspicions were confirmed only minutes later when the ship's power suddenly went down, leaving him in utter darkness.

* * *

**Pegasus galaxy – Unknown Location  
**_stardate:2908.23_

Kvasir could remember everything that happened after the power went down on his ship. What had followed was the arrival of several of the strange aliens on the bridge, unceremoniously grabbing him and taking him away like a sack of potatoes. There hadn't even been a point in struggling. Those grunts were so strong that he, with his diminutive figure, couldn't do anything to stop them even if he tried.

The next thing that he had been aware of had been the sensation of his ship being towed through hyperspace to some unknown place. Bounded like salami, he had then been transferred to the ground of some unknown planet, the very same moment they had reached their destination. From that point on, he had spent the next several hours in a small room, stretched and bound to a metallic table. In that time, he had been scanned, probed and poked several times, making his staying even more unpleasant. This was definitely not going according to plan.

The situation went from bad to worse the moment a diminutive Asgard entered the room. At least Kvasir thought it was an Asgard until the newcomer didn't speak, because from that point on he knew this was not an Asgard, but a Vanir, and no less than Njoror himself, their leader. The situation became worse because of the simple fact that Kvasir was a Vanir too, one that all other Vanir would call a traitor for the rest of their life. In the distant past, when the two races had fought their war, he had sided with the Aesir and he had been instrumental in the demise of the Vanir by giving the Aesir vital information of the Vanir's fleet disposition.

And the Vanir were known for their long memories… and unforgiving nature.

"Kvasir. Of all the Asgard we thought we would encounter, you were the last on the list," Njoror said.

"Njoror. I should have guessed you were behind this. Only the Vanir could have known enough about Asgard technology to be able to bypass our shields… or to detect our cloaked ships," Kvasir replied, not liking the last part of what he said.

"Yes, you should have," Njoror said, stepping closer to the metallic table Kvasir was lying on, "I see you look well."

"I see you don't," Kvasir replied.

Hearing Kvasir's reply, Njoror narrowed his eyes, "Yes, unfortunately we are still unable to devise a cure for our genetic disease. The disease you forced onto us when the Council decided all of us needed to start to clone ourselves."

"I see you still keep a grudge about that unfortunate decision," Kvasir replied.

"And you think we shouldn't keep _a grudge_, as you call it. The council decided for all of us, even though we were against it. It is also the reason why we went to a hundred years long war with each other, and the reason why in the end the Vanir had to leave Ida… our _home_."

"It was more than ten thousand years ago, Njoror. As the Terrans would say, it is time to move on, don't you think?"

"Yes, but there is a little problem of us, the Vanir, not being able to move on, since we are dying," Njoror replied. "But I see from your scans that you are not."

"You always liked to state the obvious. I also understand you are continuing experimenting on humans, at least, that is if the recent abductions are any indication. And _that_ is the real reason why we want to war as you are well aware of, and not the Council's decision to start the cloning process in order to achieve immortality."

"It is a matter of interpretation. If the council didn't force us in the beginning, we would have never had started experimenting on humans," Njoror replied. "But it seems that maybe now that you are here, we won't need to anymore."

Njoror, when he saw the almost imperceptible smile on Kvasir's face, knew something was wrong. "Why are you smiling? You do not think that with your genetic code we will be able to make new bodies for us?"

"You are missing a few steps before you can even use this genetic makeup, as well as missing a few more steps after this one."

Njoror was pensive. What Kvasir said meant that this body Kvasir's consciousness had been transferred to would be rejected by a Vanir consciousness if used as the first step. What Kvasir said also meant that this wasn't the last of what the Aesir had created. There were more evolved Asgard bodies after this one, but the consciousness probably needed to go through several smaller steps first. "Intriguing. How were the Aesir able to achieve such tremendous feat?"

Again, Kvasir said nothing, giving only a slight smile.

Njoror didn't like it. "You know we have the technology to extract information from your brain. There is no point in hiding any fact."

"Oh, I wasn't hiding anything. I was just trying to build up the suspense before I tell you."

"Tell me what?"

"The Alterrans live again."

Njoror's eyes grew to XXXL size the instant he heard those words. The Alterrans were not the forgiving type, at least not with somebody who was experimenting on living humans, their children. Now, at least a few other things could be explained too. He now knew who the strange race that had come here, those the inhabitant of the Pegasus galaxy called the Guardians, really were. This information he really didn't like. They were having enough problems facing the Terrans and the Asgard, but now, to have to face the Alterrans as well was simply catastrophic.

"There is more," Kvasir said.

"More?"

"The Terrans are led by a human that has been turned into an Alterran."

Okay this was becoming ridiculous. Njoror suddenly got the image of billions of pissed off humans from Earth led by an Alterran, slash former human, taking the fight to them.

"Are you still certain I have chosen the wrong side?" Kvasir replied, again giving a slight but also wicked smile.

"Don't forget you are still strapped on a table," Njoror replied before leaving the room.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Thor's Ship  
**_stardate:2908.27_

Thor didn't like the message he had received from Kvasir. Those aliens had been able to detect their ship even while cloaked, which meant their level of understanding of Asgard technology was beyond even what the Council's wildest prediction had been. It was nothing less than disastrous. He thought maybe the aliens had somehow managed to acquire their shielding technology, although he didn't know exactly how, but now that he knew more was in their hands, he was certain this wasn't just a simple case of stolen property. These aliens knew too much about them.

Before he had reached the system in question, the one where Kvasir had been attacked, he had hoped that he would reach him in time in order to provide support, but his hope had quickly and completely disappeared the moment he'd exited hyperspace in said system and found no trace of Kvasir or his ship. The only thing he'd found was one destroyed alien ship. Kvasir must have at least succeeded in destroying one of the ships, but now the question was - where was Kvasir now?

Thor thought about what to do next, coming quickly to the only possible avenue he could take from here. The Asgard had installed a locator beacon on every ship, one very difficult to detect. The beacon would intermittently send a subspace ping masked as subspace noise. If you didn't know what to look for, you would never be able to detect it, which was exactly what they wanted.

As he configured the sensors to listen for the subspace signal, he noticed that there was nothing to listen to. There were three possibilities he could think of. The first was that he needed to wait a little longer since the signal was sent only every five or so minutes, the second was that the ship was in hyperspace, which would limit the range of the signal being sent, and of course the last and the most unpleasant possibility was that the device had been destroyed, which would probably mean the ship had been destroyed as well. Since there was no wreckage of the O'Neill floating anywhere in the system, Thor decided that one of the first two possibilities was the one.

Waiting for another three excruciating minutes, the ship's sensors finally detected the ping, originating from seven hundred light years away from here. He inputted the necessary commands in the console in front of him, with the Valhalla speeding in hyperspace at ridiculous speed the very next instant.

The voyage had lasted only a few minutes, with the Valhalla reverting back to normal space in a never before visited system. The powerful sensors of the Valhalla went immediately to work, quickly detecting the O'Neill floating in space near a planet. In the vicinity of the ship, there were two other ships with the same configuration as of the grey alien's ships previously encountered by the Terrans.

The sensor had as well been able to detect a small outpost on the planet's surface, also detecting several life signs inside it. The strange part about those life signs was that those were all Asgard. As one life sign was that of Kvasir, Thor was relieved he had found his friend, but whose the other Asgard life signs were was for the moment beyond his understanding. Scans were telling him those life signs were very similar to scans he would get if he scanned an Asgard in one of their old bodies, those before Liam had given them the cure. It took him a few more seconds before finally understanding what was going on here.

"The Vanir," Thor said to himself. It was the only plausible solution to this conundrum.

Glancing again at his sensors, now directed at the O'Neill, he noticed there were more Asgard and some of those gray aliens life signs aboard the ship. They were probably trying to unravel whatever new technology the Asgard had installed on the O'Neill that the Vanir didn't yet know anything about, which in his opinion, was a lot. He also knew that his ship must have been detected by now, which meant they could soon decide to take the O'Neill to some other location while he was otherwise preoccupied with saving Kvasir. This left Thor with only one possibility.

Six lances of destructive plasma streaked from the Valhalla, hitting the unshielded O'Neill in full and resulting in the ship's complete destruction. Thor could simply not allow the Vanir to get their hands on any of their newest technologies that had been installed on the O'Neill. If anyone could quickly understand their technology and implement it, those were the Vanir.

Thor thought that the gray aliens would have targeted his ship next, but that did not happen. Instead the two ships sped away and entered hyperspace, with two other smaller ships inside the planet's atmosphere doing the same. His sensors were now telling him that, except for Kvasir's life sign, there were no other Asgard inside the outpost. There were a few of those grey aliens, but no Vanir. Unfortunately his beaming technology did not work either. The Vanir must have activated some kind of jamming device. Thor longed for the days where the beaming system always worked. Apparently, it had become so common to have jamming devices capable of blocking it that soon one of the greatest Asgard inventions would become almost unusable. It also meant that in order to rescue Kvasir he would have to do it the hard way, with the help of the Terran teams aboard his ship. The worst part was that while he needed to stay here in order to rescue Kvasir, the Vanir would be long gone, far outside his sensors' range. It had probably been their plan to escape from the moment he had entered the system.

Thor worked on his console, quickly establishing a comm. channel to Lorne, "Captain Lorne."

"Yes Thor."

"I require your and your teams' expertise in order to rescue a fellow Asgard."

"We are ready Thor. Just give us a minute to reach our raptors."

"Thank you. I will send the pertinent data about the outpost where Kvasir is held directly to your raptors," Thor replied.

"That would be of great help, thank you."

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Asura  
**_stardate:2908.79_

Thor beamed down on Asura's surface, directly inside Atlantis' central tower. The rescue mission went without a hitch and Kvasir was safe on board Thor's ship. He wasn't happy of having lost an O'Neill, but at least he was still alive.

Thor now had the ungrateful job of having to inform the Terrans, and later the Asgard Council, of who's behind the recent troubles they were having in this galaxy.

While Thor was thinking of what they would do next in order to stop the Vanir, he had walked in Weir's office, where Weir was sitting behind her desk.

"Thor, nice to see you," Weir said, smiling.

"Likewise, Doctor Weir," Thor replied, pausing until he reached the front of her desk, sitting in the chair in front of it. "Unfortunately, I am the bearer of bad news."

"Oh, what kind of bad news?" Weir said, not liking where this was going.

"We now know who is behind the gray aliens, those responsible for the attack on your space station."

"Behind? Does this mean there's another race we have to worry about?" Weir asked.

"Unfortunately, there is. Those behind the gray aliens, are the Vanir."

Weir remained stunned. Even she knew enough of Norse mythology to know the relation between the Asgard, or more precisely the Aesir and the Vanir. "Aren't the Vanir…"

"They are."

"Oh. That's… um…"

"It is," Thor said, taking a deep breath. "As you probably know from Norse mythology, when there were once the Asgard, a war began that split them in two distinct factions, the Aesir and the Vanir. The war happened more than ten thousand years ago and at the moment I'm not prepared to talk about the war, not until I am able to talk to my council first. The important part that I can tell you is that the Aesir won the war, and from that point on any knowledge of the whereabouts of the Vanir was lost. They simply left the Ida galaxy never to be heard from them again."

"And now you know where they went."

"Yes. My theory is that they came here because they knew there were humans here. Humans they intended to experiment upon in order to find a cure for the degenerative disease that was slowly but surely killing them. What they didn't anticipate though was the presence of the Wraith in this galaxy. This is only a theory with the only clue the fact that they had been in hiding until now that the Wraith are not a threat to them anymore."

"And with the Wraith gone, they are trying to start again with their experimentation in order to find a cure," Weir said still not understanding one thing. "But I still don't understand what their relation with the gray aliens is?"

"That is something I haven't figured out yet. Suffice it to say, I can guarantee the Asgard will do everything in our power to stop them. It is an internal matter after all. But before we continue I must first inform the Council in person of this new and unpleasant development."

"Of course Thor, and thank you for coming here and informing me of the situation. I will make sure the Terran Council is informed as well."

"Thank you. I must leave now. I have already beamed Lorne and his teams here on Atlantis."

Weir nodded and the next moment Thor disappeared in a bright flash of light.

* * *

**Milky Way galaxy – Unknown location  
**_stardate:2917.13_

Inside a remote system in the outer region of the Milky Way galaxy a TIA spy-ship stood motionless under its cloak. On the small bridge, four Terrans were present, all of them waiting patiently.

"Here," one of the agents said as he approached the front of the small bridge where the other three agents were seated, while carrying a large bowl.

"Uh, popcorn! Nice," another agent said as he took the bowl.

"Yeah, it's nice, but only if they finally decide to show up," another in the group said.

"Faith Saunders, you need to have faith they will."

"Well, we've spread the intel on so many worlds that I don't see how they could not show up."

"Yeah? And what have we spread exactly?"

"Um… different things. Worlds near the Aschen got the news that the Terrans are developing a secret weapon capable of bypassing their planetary defenses and that will be ready today. Worlds where Wraith had been spotted got the intel that the Terrans are just about to activate an upgraded version of the Attero Device that doesn't make gates go boom, and worlds recently visited by priors that we are developing a device capable of detecting the location of an active supergate."

"And what about the Lucians?"

"Um, I think they got the news we are developing a drug that makes people indifferent to Kassa corn."

"Nice that one. They would lose a large portion of their income if that was true."

"Here we go guys! I'm detecting hyperspace windows opening straight ahead," another agent said as he read the sensor readings scrolling on his console."

"Who's the first to show up?"

"The Wraith. Five hives and eight cruisers."

"Good. Let's hope the others don't show up too late."

"They shouldn't. Our agents have worked hard to time this perfectly."

The agents remained in silence, waiting patiently to see what would happen next. A few minutes later, the Ori showed up with six of their toilet ships, quickly followed by an armada of eighteen Aschen cruisers. The last to arrive was a fleet of fifteen Ha'taks belonging to the Lucians.

"They are all here," Saunders said, leaning in his chair and taking a fistful of popcorn.

The large group of different ships all came to a stop in orbit above the planet, exactly above the location where the Terrans had placed the bait; a large generator with the only purpose of emitting significant amounts of energy.

The four agents watched with excitement as the various races all stopped near each other, probably scrutinizing the others in order to assess what was exactly going on here. For a short moment, it looked as if nothing was to happen, but then one of the Ha'taks fired a single plasma blast at one of the Aschen ships.

"Somebody on one of the Lucian ships has a twitchy finger," Saunders said, smiling.

"Oh look, the Aschen are turning."

"Yup, the Ori are turning too. There is a considerable buildup in energy across all ships."

"Okay, we know the players now; time to place bets. Who's gonna win?"

"I think the Wraith. Five upgraded hives is a lot, even without the cruisers."

"Nah! The Ori have much stronger weapons and shields."

"I think those sneaky Aschen will win; just watch."

"Well, there's no way I'm betting on the Lucians. They are definitely outmatched here. I too think the Ori are going to win this one."

The four agents continued watching as the Wraith began firing from the many weapons at their disposal. It didn't take long for the other ships to begin with their own relentless fire.

The agents watched, smiling, as for the first time, Terran enemies were fighting against each other rather than against them.

… To Be Continued

* * *

_**Anyone cares to place a wager on how the fight's going to end!**_


	25. Incursion

**Neeros: **Thanks. Although, I _will_ try to speed up. I'm starting to forget things I wrote and things I had in plan to write. Not good. Not good.

**Stephenopolos: **Well, I do think it was about time for all those hostile races to meet.

**Beyogi: **The point of any good trap is to make the target juicy enough so that even if they smell a rat, they still have to go check it out. Just to be sure.

**Trekki859: **More tech coming in the next chapters, but most of the tech I'm keeping for the awesome ending of this second book. Then in the third book things will change drastically, with... uhm... _weird_ weapons coming into play.

**StargateFFWriter:** Well, Adria certainly doesn't like to be lied to, but she's still an Ori so…

Yup, Lorne is a Captain (Senior Grade) in the newly redesigned Terran Navy, and Sheppard would be a rear admiral now, although he's ascended so… difficult to exactly define what he is right now.

Well, the Terrans did lure them with juicy false pretenses. They couldn't possibly pass on an opportunity to knock out the new Terran super weapons before being deployed.

**Kami No Raijin:** Will see in this chapter. When there are four factions fighting and where you don't know who'll target whom, literally everything is possible.

**EvilTheLast:** I must admit, my first idea was to get two factions, the Ori and the Wraith, to get to know each other, but then I thought about it and decided why not all of them!

**Itns: **Why, thank you. I'll try to come up with more similarly devious scenarios.

**Nashakell, ryanduong1: **I must admit, at one point I simply didn't know where I would find the time to write. But, since I too hate when I'm reading a story that suddenly stops in the middle, the least I can do is to not follow that same example.

**Awesome275: **Will see, will see.

**pking10: **he-he, what can I say. The universe works in mysterious and chaotic ways, riddled with not always welcoming coincidences.

**UNSpaceCommand: **True, true. The Terrans indeed will be the only real victor here, and without even firing a single shot. Or getting their ass shot either.

**Arsenal18: **Possible, but I don't think there'll be enough time to make any kind of spur-of-the-moment alliance though. Still, everybody involved knows who's the most dangerous amongst them and who's to weak to even try to fight them.

**Skarosianlifeform (chapter 4):** As far as Jack naming the Station 'Babylon One', the only thing I can add is that we can all be happy he hasn't decided to name it 'Homer One'.

**Guest: **Well, since the Lucian fired the first shot without thinking, I opted for the 'chaos-rules' option on how this will all play out. I also have to agree about the indigestion part when the Aschen and Wraith are concerned. The Aschen do look like a nice and big snack from the Wraith perspective. Something that will play a big role in the future chapter. ;) Ok, I've said too much already.

**Skarosianlifeform (chapter 5): **Ok, you may have a point here as far as what the easiest way to deal with the China problem would have been, but let's first play a little reverse-role game for a moment. Let's say that _your_ country decided not to join the Terran Alliance (preposterous I know, but let's still take this hypothesis as a possibility at least), as it is her right to do so as a free sovereign nation, no matter of the motives behind such decision. Furthermore, let's say that your country decides to start her own space program to explore the galaxy and colonize other planets, which is also her right to do since no binding document had been signed. At this point, the Terran Alliance doesn't like very much what your country is doing, so they decide to sabotage her first voyage to another planet, preventing your country from taking a brand new stargate back home, because, let's face it, it would be really awkward to have two gates on Earth. Furthermore, they decide that they _really _don't like where all this is going so they decide, as the easiest and fastest solution, to use their much bigger club to hammer down your country into submission. Would you in such case still think of the Terran Alliance as the good guys, or as the aggressor who when push comes to shove opts for the military solution, even though they were the first to say that the Terran Alliance's military would never be used on Earth's soil against any country?

Well, in a way it is understandable to side with the 'good guys' in any story you read. Hell, when I watch Dexter I'm on his side, even though in the end he's nothing less than a ruthless serial killer who enjoys killing and chopping off people in pieces. I have to admit he's not exactly a role model, and yet I still root for him no matter what he does in his spare time. So, in the same way, since you know they are the good guys, it automatically means that whatever they do must be a good thing too even though, let's face it, in my story, the Terran Alliance didn't have any right to sabotage the Chinese on their first voyage, did they? No matter what their motives were.

As far as Churchill's quote goes, I don't believe the situation is the same. In 1938, when Churchill said that, everybody more or less knew that a war with Germany was inevitable. In my story though China hasn't shown any intention of attacking any other country on Earth (and it doesn't matter if the only reason why they didn't was because they knew the Terrans have a bigger club to pound on them if they did try either). So at that point, there was no real risk of China going all berserk.

Also, you are right that the admission of China in the alliance would probably result in them reaping of the benefits, but only in the short term. The long term from the Terran Alliance's perspective is to create the Terran race in which every soul on the planet is simply a citizen of Terra. And China can also forget about aspiring to Dominate the entire world since the Terran Alliance have never given the latest in tech to Earth countries in the first place, does it?

Well, with this reply I almost managed to write a new chapter inside this chapter, so I'll simply stop blabbing now.

**gamdori-bil: **How did you know what I was planning! Hmm... maybe I should check my laptop to see if there a spyware on it. Although, the second Jack is still with the Nox.

**Skarosianlifeform (chapter 8): **It would be a problem to put so many different cultures together, but they are not really together are they? A planet is a really big place, and there is no reason to put them closely together. They could place them thousands of kilometers apart easily, and the Edenians are always watching over them so if some of them gets antsy, they can simply tell them to go back, shut up, and don't make more troubles. Furthermore, even if relocating the Pegasus natives could eventually create some troubles, it is still better than allowing for them to be eaten. Besides, it was always the plan to let them go back home once the Wraith are defunct. So spending a few years or even half a decade is not enough time for massive hostilities to start between them.

**Monsterjeffbuk: **Well, I'm glad to hear that. And I hope I'll be able to post more chapters on an at least semi-regular basis.

**Reader 771:** Well, that _would_ be a shock for Jack, but somehow I think even if a single Ori ship remained to face all of the Lucian ships, they still wouldn't have a chance in hell of winning.

**Friend & Dneirf: **Hmm... very peculiar. Both reviews only two minutes apart. And even before I moderated them so they could be displayed. Were you for any chance in the same room maybe when you wrote them?

**Morgauxo:** I'm fully aware of the rotation of satellite galaxies, and I can't say that I remember the reason why I wrote that, not exactly. At a guess I think I wrote it to give the readers an idea that not all planets in the MW are at the same distance from the circling satellite galaxy, and maybe to picture better the difference between a satellite galaxy and a regular one like Pegasus or Andromeda. I think.

There's always a risk when loaning some technology like the beaming system, but I would call this a calculated risk. It helped the Jaffa a lot in this instance since they didn't have to go to the planet and lift the gate with the ship. On the other hand the Terrans had confidence the Jaffa would succeeded, and not get hammered instead. Second, there's a greater chance of a ship being destroyed than captured, and even if the ship had been boarded, the Jaffa still had time to simply destroy any sensitive tech on board. And although the series doesn't show it that way, but reverse engineering is not that easy. To make a comparison, I could give you a CPU and you won't have a lot of ways to understand how it works. Plus the Terrans are installing temper-proof precautions on all of their tech.

I always believed a good story plot must have a good misdirection. If everybody always knows the truth, the story can became dull. So, yes. The Ori, or at least Adria, were under the impression the Alterrans had spread the disease.

**Guest:** To tell you the truth, I always had the feeling the creators of the show had planned much more for the Aschen race than what they showed. Somehow the Aschen simply disappeared when the Ori showed in the show.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**_stardate: 2917.41_

Late at night, inside a small conference room, Daniel, Jack and Sam were seated, all impatiently waiting for Klaus to finally show up.

"Where is he?" Jack asked.

"Don't know. Maybe he was detained for some reason," Daniel asked.

"Or maybe he started without us?" Jack frowned.

"He wouldn't do that. We said we would watch it together," Daniel replied simply, confident Klaus wouldn't do that to them.

"I'm just sorry Teal'c couldn't make it," Sam added, taking a fistful of popcorn from one of the several bowls on the table in front of her.

"Yeah, he would have loved it. It's going to almost be like watching Star Wars. You'll see." It appeared Jack was really looking forward to this. Well, it _was _his idea after all.

At that point Klaus entered the room, scurrying quickly towards the table where the rest of the council was already seated, "Sorry I'm late. Something important came up I couldn't postpone."

"Yeah-yeah, do you have it?" Jack asked impatiently.

"I have already uploaded the recordings on the server," Klaus said, tapping at the small tablet he was holding. The next moment, the large screen in front of them came to life with the recording of the battle beginning to play. "Here it goes."

"Uh, goody," Jack said, smiling and taking one entire bowl of popcorn all for himself.

Daniel growled at Jack, looking directly at him and at the bowl he just took , "Don't you think popcorn is a little too much? It's not a real movie night, you know?"

"Oh, relax Daniel! How often do we get the chance to watch our enemies fight each other?" Jack replied, taking another fistful of popcorn and putting it in his mouth.

In the meantime, the battle on the screen had already begun, with one of the Lucian ships firing a single plasma bolt at an Aschen cruiser.

"Uh, apparently someone's twitchy on board that Lucian Ha'tak," Jack said.

"It looks that way. Ah, here we go," Klaus said as other ships started firing.

It was pretty easy to discern how the Lucians were attacking the Aschen, the Aschen firing at the Lucians and the Wraith ships, the Wraith replying in kind while focusing their fire from their larger hives at the Ori, and the Ori turning to face the Wraith exclusively. Apparently, the Ori didn't feel the Aschen or much less the Lucians were a threat to them.

"Uh, nice move that one! Those toilets are much more maneuverable than someone would think. Did you see how quickly they were able to position four of their ships to take out that one hive?" Jack said.

"Yeah, but the Wraith are not stupid either. They have quickly realized who's the biggest threat. Look, they are almost completely disregarding the Lucians and the Aschen," Klaus said, watching as all hives were focusing their fire on the Ori, while their cruisers were keeping the ships from the other two races at bay.

"What was that?" Jack asked, leaning towards the screen trying to see better.

"What was what?" Daniel asked. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"Just look at one of the Wraith cruisers when it gets hit by an Aschen warship," Jack said, watching intently.

"Oh crap!" Daniel yelped. "Since when do Wraith ships have shields?"

"Don't know," Sam added, not liking the implications one bit. "The hives don't seems to have them though."

"Hives must be too big to have shields, but apparently cruisers aren't. Not anymore at least," Klaus added to the conversation.

Daniel gazed at the lower left quadrant of the screen where the Lucians were fighting the Aschen, "Poor Lucians, they don't have a chance against the Aschen, even with them having to keep the Wraith cruisers at bay. Numerical inferiority and weaker ships. Not a good combo."

Everybody nodded, completely agreeing with him while still keeping their eyes fixed on the screen. The next instant, one of the Ori ships exploded under the relentless fire from three hives. It had simply been too much for the ship.

"Look, one of the hives is turning to face the Aschen ships. Maybe the Lucians could survive after all."

"Even if they survive the Aschen, the Wraith will turn against them the moment they are done with the Aschen," Daniel said.

Jack had to agree with Daniel's prediction. Still, the Wraith still had to face another enemy first. "You are forgetting the Ori are still in the game. I think only the Wraith can take out an Ori ship here, and I'm not certain they can take all of them."

Watching the events further unfold on the large wall-size screen, the people in the room witnessed yet another hive explode, followed shortly after by one Ori and several other ships on both the Aschen and Lucian side following with the same fate. In short time, only two hives and two cruisers, two Ori toilets, six Aschen cruisers and two Lucian Ha'taks remained still standing.

Suddenly, the last two Ori ships quickly turned, entering hyperspace and leaving the system.

"That's disappointing," Jack commented sadly.

The hives, without thinking twice, turned immediately to face the Aschen, firing a full broadside at the nearest ship and obliterating it in seconds. Another Lucian ship exploded the next instant as three Aschen ships managed to surround it. It looked as if the last Lucian ship was about to flee too, but another broadside from one of the two remaining hives and the two cruisers prevented that from happening. Three Aschen ships quickly entered hyperspace, fleeing and leaving two of their own. Those two must have been damaged enough to prevent them from entering hyperspace, because if not, they would have fled as well.

Probably knowing there was no way to survive a battle against two hives and two cruisers, the two Aschen ships sped straight at the two Wraith cruisers. Unable to move out of the way fast enough in order to evade the collision, the two Aschen ships succeeded in ramming the Wraith cruisers. The resulting explosions signaled the destruction of four ships.

Jack stopped the recording. "So, the Wraith won."

"You can look at it that way, yeah; they were the last standing. But the Ori fled while having lost only four ships. The Wraith lost three of their massive hives and all of their cruisers. I must say, the Ori main weapon is very effective against hives," Klaus said.

"Hey, the one that remains standing, and I emphasize the word _remains, _is the winner. No matter how many ships they've lost. The Ori fled, which means they forfeited the battle," Jack stated firmly. He'd bet on the Wraith winning, so it was important to him to make that point stick.

"I think the Ori were the smartest here. Those poor Lucians should have left the moment they saw what was there. Instead they stayed, fighting a battle they could not have possibly won. The others at least had a chance of winning."

"Well, you never know who's going to win in such scenarios. If the Ori, Aschen and Lucians all targeted the Wraith first, the battle would have ended differently."

"I think we talked enough about who won and who didn't. The positive side is that our enemies have lost a lot of ships, and hopefully they will now start fighting each other," Jack said.

"Not sure about the second part, Jack," Klaus said, shaking his head. "They know we are behind this entire ordeal. They could decide to gang up against us."

"Fat chance of that ever happening!" Jack said. He couldn't even conceive a situation in which the Aschen or the Ori would side with the Wraith. And at this point, he really didn't care what the Lucians did. They were too weak at this point to be of any consequence. "The Ori and the Wraith would never even speak to each other, much less work together."

Klaus remained thoughtful for a moment. "That's true. However, the Ori and Aschen, well, that's a completely different story in my humble opinion."

"That… I have to admit is not that impossible, but I think this battle benefited us more than the long term repercussions may turn out to be, even if the Ori and Aschen gang up. There's not much difference between fighting those two separately or together. Besides, the Aschen know who the Ori are and what they want, so the chances of them working together is practically nonexistent. If we fall, the Aschen will fall too against the Ori… and they know it!"

"We'll see. How did you come up with this idea in the first place, Jack?" Daniel asked. Now that he saw the results, it was easy to see the benefits. But Jack came with the idea out of the blue, without the advantage of hindsight.

"Well, when we found out the Wraith were here, I thought how nice it would be if for once our enemies started shooting at each other for a change. You know, instead of all of them focusing on us. Then I came to the conclusion that the main reason why this didn't happen sooner was mostly because they never met. So I decided that introductions were in order, and Klaus' spy network easily spread false data to our enemies so they'd act upon it."

"It wasn't easy though. We had to time everything perfectly, giving our enemies only a small window of opportunity so they would all come at the same time," Klaus admitted. "It could easily have gone differently."

"I'm just glad it worked. Although, I would say the Wraith coming up with ships with shields is of some concern, don't you think?" Sam said, thoughtfully. There was great change in the Wraith's M.O.

"That's true. Now we'll have to worry about their cruisers too. Until now, one of our 304s was more than enough to take out a cruiser or maybe even a bunch of them, but now… I'm not so sure anymore," Jack said.

"I think, with Liam leaving for the Ori galaxy and the Asgard busy in the Pegasus galaxy, we need to come up with more such sneaky tactics for fighting our enemies," Klaus added.

"That's for sure. What are we going to do with the Jaffa and the Alliance they are trying to make with the Optricans, Langarans and Galarans?" Daniel asked. The creation of such alliance with the sole purpose of opposing the Aschen as a united front would be of great benefit for all of them. Still, there were other factors that were against such alliance. The most prominent, the fact that except for the Jaffa the other races didn't have that many ships at their disposal.

"Don't know if we can do anything. If they want to gang up against the Aschen, well, I'm all for it, but as far as we are concerned, we can't do that much," Jack replied. The idea was to let them come up with the alliance without the Terrans meddling. Not much at least.

"But do you think it's smart for the Galarans, Langarans and Optricans to get involved in this?" Daniel asked.

"They have ships now, and they know what the Aschen are all about. So, I don't see why not," Jack said.

"They have started going out into space only a year ago, and they don't have that large of a fleet to face _any _enemy. Much less somebody as powerful as the Aschen. The Aschen could decide to target their home worlds. It could get ugly."

"Yeah and that's why they are asking us if we can assure them that in such case we are ready to protect their worlds. Both us and the Jaffa," Klaus said.

"I think this is the main reason why they want to join the Jaffa in their fight against the Aschen. Having certainty we will be there if they get targeted is something worth going to war for, since if they stay on the sidelines, they could still get targeted by them and have no guarantee we would come to their rescue," Daniel explained.

"We have decided a long time ago that we will help them if they are attacked, the same as the Quirilians. But yes, the idea of having it written on paper must be pushing them to do this," Klaus added.

"Daniel, when is the meeting between them scheduled?" Jack asked.

"Tomorrow they are all meeting on Dakara. I'm going to be there too," Daniel replied.

"Good. You can assure them we will be there to help if they get attacked back at home. We need those races to work together. That way at least we'll have to worry about the Aschen a little less and focus more on the Ori, Wraith and those strange _Leptinians_." Jack said with clear disgust. He really wasn't sure which race he liked less.

"Are they still sieging Borealis?" Sam asked.

"They are. There are more than forty thousand of those small ships and a dozen of their transport ships in the system, but since the city is under water, they aren't doing anything useful there. The Daedalus and the rest of our ships there are harassing them from time to time, but no real engagement has been undertaken. And I don't think we should either. There's simply too much risk of something going wrong with their ability to block a hyperspace window from forming."

"Maybe we should use those long range missiles like we used them on the Aschen."

"Maybe, but those small ships are spread too thin for our missiles to destroy enough of them in one big blast."

"Yeah, but that's only if they are spread too much apart," Klaus added.

"That's what I said. They are spread too much apart. Why are you repeating my words?" Jack asked puzzled.

"Because, it means the solution is then to force them to get all together, isn't it? If you give them a juicy enough target, wouldn't they all flock together in order to take it out?"

Jack was thoughtful. "You may very well be onto something."

"I know I am," Klaus said with a grin.

"Well, I'll think about it. Their ability to block our ships from entering hyperspace still bothers me." Jack said. There was no chance in hell, he would risk his ships, without an effective strategy in case they'd need to retreat. He thought about it for another minute or so, noticing no one else was saying anything constructive. "I think we are done here. For now at least."

The other people in the room nodded, a moment before getting up from their seats and slowly leaving the room, all in separate directions. Jack, the last to exit the room, went on his way to his office. He needed to think about what Klaus had proposed earlier. He was already more than certain that nuclear weapons like the Mark IX were the perfect weapon against a large number of those pesky Leptinian spherical craft. He now only needed to find a way to make them all group together so that the blasts could take out enough of them. There was also the fact that the Leptinians having so many ships in the system where Boeralis was, without the ability to threaten the city-ship, worked in their favor. The raids on the Tik'al had somewhat diminished in frequency ever since the Leptinians had found another target to worry about. If they attacked them and they decide to leave, they could lose that advantage.

And that would be bad.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Supergate Location  
**_stardate:2919.38_

Liam stood pensively on the bridge of his ship. As the ship reverted back to normal space, he looked at the frontal display now showing the large Ori supergate, the one they were keeping connected with another, smaller gate in the Pegasus galaxy near another black hole.

Behind Liam, William slowly walked until he reached his right side. "We are here. _Finally_."

"Yes, we are. The time has finally come to take the fight back to the Ori," Liam replied, thoughtfully.

"What do you think we will find on the other side?" William asked.

Liam sighed, "I simply don't have an answer to that question. I can tell you what I _hope_ we will find. I hope the Ori are arrogant enough so that they haven't placed defenses on the other side. I believe we have enough ships to do the job we've set upon ourselves, but if the supergate is well guarded on the other side, it could get very ugly for us." He knew that if the Ori had placed powerful defenses on the other side, exiting the supergate one ship at a time could be very perilous for them.

"Yeah. I was wondering about the same thing," William replied.

"But, I'm not that worried. I do think the Ori are arrogant enough to think they are untouchable. Still, just to be sure, our ship is going first. We have the greatest chance of surviving whatever it is on the other side until more ships can come through," Liam said.

"I agree," William replied.

"Well, I think it is time to inform our allies on the other side of the wormhole that they need to sever the connection," Liam replied.

"Already on it," William replied while concentrating.

Both of them waited in silence for the next minute or so until the event horizon of the supergate in front of them suddenly dissipated.

"Is the fleet in position?" Liam asked.

"It is," William replied.

"Good. Let's see if we can dial the Ori galaxy," Liam said.

William understood what Liam wanted him to do. He called an already written subroutine to be executed, the one containing the procedure needed to send the right signal in order to dial the supergate.

Only moments later, the supergate began cracking with electricity, piece by piece. As all components of the supergate became charged, the event horizon erupted, quickly settling down to a calm watery-like surface.

"Let's go then," Liam said.

Liam's ship, closely followed by two Archangel class ships, three Seraphim class battleships, and nine cruisers, began moving towards the event horizon. One after the other, the ships reached the watery surface, quickly disappearing into the event horizon.

* * *

**Ori Galaxy – Supergate Location  
**_stardate: 2919.40_

Liam's massive ship exited the Ori supergate, immediately detecting a single Ori toilet ship standing guard in front of it. Without waiting, Liam's ship let loose a beam of antiprotons from its already charged primary weapon. The beam of antiprotons lanced straight at its target, the lonely Ori ship, hitting it in full. The ship's shields quickly began to fold in itself, the next instant loosing cohesion. The beam sliced through the entire length of the ship, continuing onward. A massive explosion erupted from the Ori ship, blasting the ship in million pieces.

As Liam's ship settled less than a thousand miles in front of the gate, the rest of the fleet quickly gathered in three separate formations at a short distance from it. While Liam's ship was visibly alone, one Archangel took position with three cruisers behind it. It didn't take long for the four ships to open a single hyperspace window, disappearing inside it. The second Archangel and three more cruisers did the same only seconds later. The last battle group comprised of two Seraphim class battleships and three cruisers followed suit quickly afterwards, leaving Liam's ship alone in front of the supergate.

"They are on their way Liam," William informed him.

"Good. Let's hope they will quickly find where the Ori followers have their shipyards. The sooner we destroy their infrastructure, the sooner they will stop sending reinforcements to the Milky Way galaxy," Liam said.

"A galaxy is a big place, Liam, and we don't know how many planets have shipyards on them," William replied.

"I know, I know, but we have no other way to find them," Liam replied, not very pleased about the task those task groups need to perform, before continuing, "Well, I think it is now time for us to be on our way too. Let's find that damn Ark of Truth and end this war," Liam said.

"I have already inputted the coordinates where you sent that prior. It is our best chance to learn the whereabouts of the Ark," William replied.

"I agree," Liam said, giving William a small nod. It was time to go.

Liam's ship powered its sublight engines, slowly pushing forward. As the ship gained enough speed, it opened a hyperspace window and sped inside it.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Wraith Queen's Hive  
**_stardate: 2026.40_

Todd stood frozen, kneeling on the floor inside the queen's private chambers with his gaze directed straight at the floor, only inches in front of him. Even while looking at the floor, he could see the queen's pacing, clear indication of the mood she was in. Yes, the pacing was a bad sign, but it wasn't the pacing that was making him extremely worried. The telepathic waves of pure rage the queen was sending were the ones that were making Todd wanting to shrink and possibly fall through the floor in order to disappear.

"What is it with this galaxy?" the Queen asked while continuing to pace.

Todd said nothing. If the queen could somehow vent her anger, he could still survive this day… _maybe_.

"This galaxy should have become our new home, our new and rich feeding ground, with the Terrans as our only obstacle," the queen added, pausing again and looking straight at the one the humans had named Todd.

Todd, again, said nothing.

"Instead, there are a dozen races here all fighting each other, and all with warships at their disposal. And to make things worse, the Ori are here, the Alterrans' archenemies," the Queen said, pausing and again glancing at her subordinate kneeling in front of her. He wasn't saying anything. '_Smart move,' _she thought.

"And you didn't know about all these other races? _Or_ did you my child?" the Queen asked.

Todd knew he couldn't stay silent anymore, not after such a direct question, "I did not my Queen," Todd replied, _'That's right; short answers.'_

"Why didn't you?" the queen asked.

"There was no mention of a war here when I _befriended_ the Terrans, my Queen. Or at least there was no record of it in their database," Todd replied, thinking that maybe he shouldn't have mentioned the last part.

"There was no record _or _you didn't look strongly enough?_"_ the queen asked in a threatening tone.

'_Yup, I shouldn't have,' _Todd thought. "I assure you my Queen, there was nothing in their database in Atlantis when I accessed it."

The queen began pacing again, scrutinizing her child kneeling in front of her, "I believe you… _this time_."

"Thank you, my Queen," Todd replied, taking his first breath since he had entered her private chambers.

"Who are they?" the queen asked.

Todd again knew that if she wasn't satisfied with his knowledge, she might still decide to end his life. Thankfully, he came prepared for such questions. "My Queen, from the intel I was able to gather, there are several advanced races in this galaxy in addition to the Terrans and their allies. The Ori are the strongest among those races. They have powerful warships as we have witnessed recently and an endless stream of followers. Not to mention the fact the Ori themselves are ascended beings."

"I am well aware how many of our ships were destroyed by their ugly ships. Who else?"

"Well, there is the Aschen, my Queen. They are the most numerous human race, even more than the Terrans," Todd answered.

"More numerous? Do we know where their planets are?" the queen said, torn between wanting to destroy those that had dared attack her ships, and finding the richest feeding ground ever.

"My Queen, although the Aschen have several worlds in their confederation, they live only on one of them. Their homeworld has more than fifteen billion humans on it."

The Queen's eyes grew in delight. Such feast hasn't proposed itself in… well, never. "Could this become our next feeding ground?"

"No, my Queen, I wouldn't advise it," Todd replied, even though he didn't like having to use the negative when replying to the queen, no matter that it had been masked as an advice.

"You _wouldn't_? Why not?"

As expected, she didn't take kindly him saying _'no' _to her. "My Queen, from what I was able to ascertain, even the Terrans or the Ori are reluctant to attack the Aschen homeworld. The Aschen have built an incredible defensive satellite grid around their planet."

The queen was thoughtful. They were building in strength, but they were still too weak to take on such target. A target that even the Terrans or Ori were reluctant to take on. "Who else?"

"There is the Free Jaffa Nation, my Queen."

"Who are they?"

"They are Earth's allies, ever since the Terrans have freed them from the Goa'uld."

"The Goa'uld?"

"Yes, my Queen. A parasitic race that can take control of the host it inhabits."

The queen hissed, "Parasites!? There are parasites in this galaxy capable of taking control of someone else against his will? Have they been destroyed?"

"Not entirely my Queen. The Terrans and Jaffa have won the war against them. As a result, the Goa'uld have fled far from their territory, but they still live."

"Could they take control of one of us?"

"There is no indication of the contrary, my Queen."

"Is that all? Or there is more enemies we need to worry about?"

Todd sighed, "Well, there are the Tollans, Optricans, Galarans, Langarans, To'kra, all space capable and allies of the Terrans. And of course there are also the Guardians, Asgard and the Nox, the members of the previous Great Alliance and now members of the Second Great Alliance, together with the Terrans and-"

The next moment, Todd, and probably every other Wraith on board the Queen's hive, heard a deafening telepathic scream of pure rage the queen let out. Todd suddenly felt lightheaded, with his telepathic senses clearly having been overwhelmed. _'This isn't a good sign,'_ he thought. It was probably the understatement of the century.

The Queen, without saying anything, took a deep calming breath. She really needed it. "My child, how is progressing our plan to increase our numbers?"

At last something positive to say. "Well, my Queen. We have infected many worlds with the retrovirus, and our numbers are growing with each passing day. Soon, we will have even more worlds with humans turned into Wraith.

"And what about our fleet?"

"We are growing more ships on many hidden locations. In three more months…"

"IN THREE MONTHS! This is unacceptable!"

Todd looked at a very irrational queen, yelling at him. No matter how much he tried, he wasn't a magician. There was simply no way to increase the speed at which their ships were being grown. Something the queen was very well aware of, but apparently something she also didn't care at all. Todd decided the best course of action at the moment was to shut up and wait for the Queen to come to the same conclusion on her own.

It took some time, but in the end the queen did come to the same conclusion, "Fine! Three months it is, but no delay."

"Of course my Queen."

"And I want a plan to take the fight against all those races. Is that understood?"

"Perfectly, my Queen."

"You may leave now."

Todd nodded, getting back on his feet and quickly leaving the chamber. Walking down one of the many corridors on the Queen's hive with no definite destination in mind, Todd thought hard about his current situation. Asking of him to find a way to fight the many enemies in this apparently very hostile galaxy was something the queen thought he could find with ease. On the other hand, he didn't have a clue where to even begin.

Thinking a little more, Todd came to the unpleasant but possibly lifesaving realization that he didn't know who the worst enemy of his was at the moment; one of the many races in this galaxy, or his beloved Queen. Such realization also made him think that, maybe, it was time to start working on a plan B. One that would involve a quick getaway if the queen's irrationality didn't subside in the near future. Maybe, from the many planets where he was overseeing construction of new ships, he could build a few for himself and hide them for the remote - or maybe not so remote - possibility he would need them one of these days to flee far, far away.

* * *

**Ori galaxy – Unknown location  
**_stardate: 2927.53_

He was finally in the Ori galaxy. He was finally taking the fight back to the Ori. Liam knew that the end game was nearing when the Ori were concerned, an end game in which the faith of several galaxies would be decided. By now, there was no doubt the Ori knew about their incursion into their galaxy, and he knew they would act on it in any way they possibly can, even by deciding that the time has finally come to strike back at his ascended brothers and sisters back in the Milky Way.

The two ascended forces had been in a stalemate for millions of years, with no side having the decisive advantage to strike at the other with any certainty of winning. But this now didn't mean the time of confrontation hasn't finally come. He was certain the Ori would not idly wait with him here in their galaxy. He knew he had very little time to act.

On the other hand, a galaxy was a large place, and hopping from planet to planet in hope of finding the Ark of Truth Aenea had mentioned to him, would bear no fruit whatsoever. Not in the time he had at least. Not knowing where the Ark was, meant that he needed to go searching for someone who knew, or at least someone who could give him some clues, and the only place he knew where to start his search was the planet where he had sent that one prior, just after turning him back into a human.

"William, how much longer?" Liam asked his mechanical counterpart.

"You asked me the same question two minutes and thirty-five seconds ago. Asking me again won't increase our traveling speed," William retorted.

"I know, I know. I'm just worried we are running out of time," Liam replied, worriedly.

"I understand and I also agree with you. And that's why I don't understand why Aenea didn't give you the exact location of the Ark. Our search would go much faster if she had."

"I think she was worried what the ascended would do. She is walking a very thin line, even with what she did tell me."

"I don't get it. Maybe my cybernetic brain works differently, but I would have thought the ascended bunch would be all in for you to find the Ark and getting the Ori followers to see the truth. It's their neck too on the line if the Ori decide to take matters in their own hands."

Liam sighed, "Well, the way I see it, my brothers and sisters were against using the Ark even when they built it, and I have the slight feeling they still are. They are probably having a debate as we speak about the pros and cons of getting rid of the Ori versus freedom from ascended interference; a debate that has probably continued for the last several millions of years."

"You're probably right. I'm also concerned by the fact that _we_ didn't know about the Ark. Somehow I think we would have taken such knowledge with us when we descended."

"And now you know why I'm so worried, and probably why Aenea was worried too. When I descended, _somebody _must have erased that particular memory from my mind. Or maybe it is more precise to say that somebody hid that memory deep into my subconscious, because after Aenea mentioned it I started to remember having known about it."

"You do? Is there a chance you can bring those memories back so we can find this Ark faster?" William asked.

Liam on the other hand was already shaking his head, "I've already tried. Maybe in time I might, but I don't think we have that much time."

"Alright. Let's do this the old fashioned way then. Let's find some clues. We have reached the planet anyway," William replied, the same moment as their massive ship exited hyperspace.

In front of them, a blue planet stood, with no indication of any high level technology on it. It was a usual human planet in the Ori domain, a planet where humans lived on a medieval level. It was incredible how the Ori could so easily _lie_ to these humans, telling them how they were prepared to give them knowledge freely, as opposed to the evil Alterrans, and yet, they never uplifted any human world in their entire galaxy to even the stage where they knew about electricity. They were keeping humans in the age where people could easily believe in their magic and powers, without giving them the knowledge to understand there was more to life than what they currently knew.

"Please scan the planet, William."

"Already ahead of you. As suspected the people on the planet live simple lives, mostly in small villages or towns. I'm also detecting several Ori ships being built on the planet's surface, and there's a large training camp too. We should maybe take those out from orbit before you go down on the surface."

"No, I don't want to look as the aggressor to these people. If we blast those shipyards now, we will also create panic. And panic is not good when you want people to give you information." Liam explained, before continuing. "William, give me an image on how people on the planet are dressed."

William complied, and the next instant the frontal view on the bridge displayed a view of a typical village on the surface, with people moving around.

"Good, now make me some robes similar to what they are wearing and beam them in my quarters," Liam said, already moving out of the bridge.

"Already on it. Oh, and Liam," William said, waiting for Liam to turn, "Be careful down there. There are a lot of soldiers on the planet and probably priors too."

"Don't worry. My idea was never to go down there looking for trouble in any case. I will be sneaky this time," Liam said, before moving out of the bridge.

William watched as Liam exited the bridge, "Yeah, you never go looking for trouble, but somehow trouble always find you," William said to no one.

Liam didn't hear the last part. He was already on the way to his quarters. Moving down the few last corridors between him and his chambers, he quickly reached them, immediately noticing the garments he intended to wear already waiting for him on the bed. He removed his usual Alterran white robes and dressed the robes from the bed. He then took his wristband he usually wore with his combat suit, putting it on his right hand. Although he would not have the same protection as if he wore his armor, the wristband had many features to help him in this endeavor if things turned for the worst. And even without those, he wasn't someone to mess with.

Finally dressed, he exited his chambers, moving at a fast pace towards one of the hangar bays on the ship. He would take a smaller craft in order to reach the planet's surface. He had thought about simply beaming down, but he knew the Ori had the ability to block the beaming and he didn't want to get stuck on the planet's surface without any way of getting out.

As he reached the hangar and entered the first of three craft in the hangar, he sat in the pilot's seat before powering the flyer. It was a craft not larger than a Tel'tak, but very different in its configuration.

Pushing a few controls in front of him, the nimble craft rose from the hangar's floor, turning its nose toward the outer doors already in the process of opening. Before pushing the throttle, he cloaked the ship.

The invisible craft sped outside the much larger ships, immediately turning its nose downward towards the planet's atmosphere. His descent was slow, and it took him almost ten minutes to reach the surface of the planet. He wanted to make the least possible atmospheric disturbance so even if the Ori had some advanced sensors on the planet, his approach would not be detected.

His craft finally landed on the grassy ground, only a mile from the nearest town. He powered the ship down, leaving only the cloak active, before he exited the craft from its rear doors. He checked once again his wristband with its sensors showing there were no life signs except his own anywhere in the vicinity. He pushed back his sleeve in order to conceal the wristband that was a dead giveaway of him not being from this planet, before starting to walk towards the nearest town.

After a short walk, and after he entered the town, he noticed that except for the occasional soldier busily moving in some unknown direction, there was no prior to speak of. This part he liked very much as soldiers were not such a problem, at least not as much as priors were. Even though he could easily hide his thoughts from a prior, there was still the possibility of a prior understanding that he was blocking his ability to read his mind.

Moving deeper into the town, he soon came in the central square where the pedestal that had burned Vala stood. He didn't like the sight of it. It reminded him that these people were ruled by fear of being burned to death if they were not such devoted followers as the Ori were asking of them. He would have to be careful. He didn't want for anyone in this town to pay such price because of him.

Since simply asking around where the Ark was wasn't such a good idea, his first task was obviously to find someone who was open to the idea of the Ori not being such nice fellas. He needed to find someone who was questioning his belief in the Ori, and there was no better place to start than the local tavern, only ten meters in front of him.

Entering the tavern, he sat on the farthest table in the opposite corner from the entrance. Only a minute later, the bartender approached him, asking him if he wanted something to drink. He politely replied he wanted a beer and their specialty for food. The bartender left, returning five minutes later with a dish with some meat and green vegetables on it and a large mug filled with their version of beer. He grabbed the mug and took a long sip from it. It actually wasn't bad, and the food smelled good too. He took a bite of the meat from his plate. The meat was good too, although he couldn't decide from which animal it had originated.

As Liam ate and drank, he was actually doing a much more important job. He was augmenting his senses in order to hear, see and feel everything everyone in the room was doing. He had quickly picked up on a conversation of some interest where two people were talking about the newcomer. They were talking about him and apparently, the simple fact that they could not recognize him was enough to make them worried. This part was definitely strange to him. Was it possible that travels between towns were so infrequent that seeing any stranger was enough to alarm the people in this town? _Apparently it was_. Still, those two talking about him, weren't the ones he was looking for. They looked like the usual follower, devoted and enslaved by the Ori religion. Something he could easily sense from everyone else in the room; everyone except one person who was seating on a table in the opposite corner. The man was sitting alone and he hadn't said anything to anyone the entire time he had been here. His demeanor was also telling Liam that he was feeling like an outcast, someone who didn't belong here. From time to time the man would also glance at him, he as well probably sensing that Liam too didn't belong among these people. Maybe he had found the man he was looking for, and the best part was that it hadn't taken too long to find him either.

Eating for the next fifteen minutes Liam had finished his meal and drink. After having paid the bartender with the coins William had fabricated for him, Liam stood up in order to leave the bar. As he walked toward the exit, he brushed against the man's chair, the man he was very much intent to meet. He did so in order to leave a small tracking device on his coat. Here wasn't the right place to talk to him. He needed a more private setting to lay on the man the hard truth about the Ori and to ask him for help.

Liam spent the next half an hour wandering around the small town, with no real destination in mind. He was wasting time, and he wanted nothing more than for that man to leave the tavern and go home, or if not home then at least someplace where he could talk to him in private. It was getting late too and Liam knew that the chances of more people noticing a stranger wandering the streets increased with each passing moment. If he were in a city like New York, where someone wandering the streets in all hours of the day or night was of no concern to anyone, he wouldn't be so worried. But here, in this small town, people went home after dark, and him remaining the only person wandering the streets would not go unnoticed.

As Liam thought about what to do next, in case the man decided to stubbornly remain in the bar for much longer, his wristband sensors detected the tracking device beginning to move. Liam turned immediately, intent on following the signal wherever it took him. Moving through several alleys, always trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, Liam soon noticed the dot representing the location of the tracking device had stopped. Two more alleys farther away, and he was in front of a house from where the signal was coming from. It was time for the truth.

Stepping in front of the wooden doors, Liam knocked twice. He waited, and then waited a little more. He could sense the man was on the other side of the doors, probably peeking through the hole in them and weighing the pros and cons of even opening the door to a complete stranger. Apparently, curiosity got the best of him, since the doors opened the next moment.

"Hello. Who… who are you?" the man said, uncertain.

Liam put the best smile he could muster, "Hi, my name is Liam. I mean you no harm."

"What… what do you want?" the man asked next.

Liam could clearly sense this man was frightened, "I was wondering if we could maybe talk; talk far from any _prying_ eyes." Liam said, instinctively glancing around to see if there was someone else near them.

"Talk 'bout what?"

"The Ori," Liam said, immediately sensing the man's heartbeat starting to run faster.

The man didn't reply for a good thirty seconds, still looking intently at the man standing in front of his house. "Alright, please come in… but hurry."

Liam entered the man's house, with the man quickly closing the doors behind them and locking them right away. If the man had more locks, he would have probably used them as well. It was enough for Liam to understand the man was frightened through the roof. "You don't have to be afraid. No one will hurt you."

"The Ori are all seeing, and I have the feeling you didn't come here to spread their teachings," the man replied.

"The Ori are powerful, I will not deny it, but they are not _all_ powerful, and much less all seeing."

"How can you be so certain?" the man asked, uncertain of Liam's statement.

"Because, if they could see us now and if they could reach us, I would be already dead."

It did make sense to the man, "How is it possible that they cannot reach us?"

"It is possible because I have a device on my ship stationed above this planet that prohibits the Ori to see or to come here in person," Liam stated calmly, not wanting to add that it also meant the Ori by now probably knew he was here. That also meant that they would soon send ships here, or at least send soldiers through the gate to investigate. But this part the man didn't need to know at the moment.

The man was again uncertain, but the fact that this man was clearly preaching the Ori were not almighty and the fact that he was not in flames, was telling him he _was_ telling the truth. "What did you want to talk about exactly?"

"What would you say if I told you that my people and our allies are fighting the Ori as we speak? What would you say if I told you there is a way to even win against the Ori?"

"How?"

"Well, the how is very complicated to explain and it would take a lot of time. Suffice it to say, there is a certain device that can help us in our fight, but I don't know where it is. I only know it is here in this galaxy."

"And you think I can help you find it?"

"I think you can give me clues that would help me find it, yes. The device I am talking about should be located somewhere near the place where the Ori archenemies, the evil they had fought, had resided in this galaxy many millions of years ago."

The man thought about the evil Origin preached about, "The Book of Origin talks about the Ori having vanquished a great evil a long time ago. They have then built Celestis in that unholy place as a symbol of the Ori having won over such evil."

"Celestis? Do you know where Celestis is?" Liam asked, expectantly.

"Not exactly. I know which star in the night sky is the one where Celestis is? Does this help?"

"It does. If you can show…" Liam began saying, but he was interrupted by the cracking sound of his earpiece."

"Liam, I… detected… warships… in syst… dampening… signal," William's intermittent voice came over Liam's earpiece.

"William. William!" Liam spoke, but there was no reply. The connection was severed.

"What's happening?" the man said frightened.

Liam saw how frightened the man was. "You don't have to worry, but we have to leave now. There are probably soldiers coming here. Just follow me and everything will be fine."

The man nodded, understanding that his only chance to live another day was to follow this stranger, whenever he was going to take him.

Liam moved quickly, opening the doors and peeking outside. There was still no sign of any soldiers near them, and the fact that it was dark outside also played in their favor. Motioning to the man to follow him, both of them exited the man's house, quickly slipping in the nearest alley. Moving at a fast pace, Liam was constantly looking at his wristband showing him if there were people anywhere near them. Unfortunately, the wristband's sensors were telling him there were, and from the look of the dots on the display, Liam knew those were soldiers moving in formation. Also, and unfortunately, there was no way out without having to face at least one of the many groups that were converging on their location. He stopped, quickly telling the man to hide behind the nearest wall and wait there. He then activated his cloak, disappearing from sight.

The man suddenly became incredibly frightened. Did this man just leave him dry, leaving without him? As he listened what was happening, he heard a lot of footsteps coming from the adjacent alley, and from the sound of it, it looked as if they were getting closer. Listening intently, he suddenly heard people yelling in pain, accompanied by some crushing sounds, weapons fire, people yelling in the general term of 'what the hell is happening', everything playing out in a very short period of time, all before it all went quiet again. Only moments later, Liam appeared in front of him, in the same way as he had disappeared.

"It's clear now. We can go," Liam said with a slight grin. He simply could not help himself.

The man followed without saying anything. They entered the alley from where he'd heard the sounds, immediately noticing the dozen soldiers lying on the ground in various very uncomfortable positions. He didn't know if these soldiers were dead or just unconscious, but at the moment he really couldn't care less about their fate. He just wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible. He didn't even care where they were going.

Moving through the maze of alleys the town was made of, from time to time stopping in order for them to evade yet another patrol, they finally managed to exit the town. On their way through the open field surrounded by a thick forest towards, at least to him, an unknown destination, he began hearing more and more people, soldiers he thought, all around them. They were slowly getting surrounded, that was apparent from the rustling sounds he was hearing even though he could not see any soldiers yet, and the constant and worried glances the man next to him was giving to his strange wristband were not comforting at all.

Suddenly, the man that was supposedly leading them to safety stopped, grabbing his shoulder in order for him to do the same. It was as if he was waiting for something. In the distance he heard more people at the edge of the forest getting closer and closer, and he didn't know why they had stopped. And he really didn't like not knowing. From the rustling sounds he was hearing, there were at least a hundred soldiers coming their way, and stopping in the middle of an open field with no cover whatsoever was the worst they could do in such situation, at least in his opinion. That was of course until he saw what happened next.

Liam knew there was at least a hundred soldiers between them and his craft, and if he was alone he could easily slip under his cloak and pass them without getting noticed, but with this man coming along, there was no way he could do that. He would have to solve this little problem in some other way.

Suddenly, from the nearby woods all around them many energy blasts hurled towards them. Liam instinctively raised his hand, with a barrier immediately forming and surrounding the two of them in order to block the incoming blasts. Impacts from a hundred energy weapons began raining on the barrier he had raised, unable to pierce through.

The man was frightened at what he was seeing. This man was somehow capable of protecting them against a hundred firing weapons, and apparently he was doing it with ease. But the surprises were not over yet. The thing that frightened the man the most was when he saw Liam slowly rise from the ground several feet in the air, with his body beginning to emanate a light strong enough to illuminate this dark night almost as if it was day. As he watched the man becoming half ethereal, glowing with constantly increasing intensity, the man suddenly felt as if time itself had somehow slowed down. It looked as if it took minutes for the blasts from the many energy weapons directed at them to reach the barrier, with the grass on the ground pushed by the wind moving as if in slow motion. In reality, all this was happening in a very short time.

Suddenly the barrier that was surrounding them, and that the man had somehow created, flickered, just before increasing in intensity. It was then that the barrier was suddenly pushed forth, inexplicably turned into a massive blast wave that spread outward away from them and toward the hundred soldiers that were firing at them. As the blast wave spread, soldiers, trees and even a good portion of the earth beneath those soldiers were blasted away with such force that most of it went shredded in the initial moment of impact. The massive blast had destroyed everything in its path, spreading further and further away and out of sight and into the darkness.

As the man watched the devastation in front of him with his mouth agape, he noticed Liam slowly returning back to the ground while losing his previous glow. They were again in complete darkness, with only the distant and dim half-moon illuminating their surroundings.

"He-he, maybe you weren't lying when you said you have a way to fight the Ori."

"I do have ways to fight them, but now we need to hurry before more soldiers show up," Liam said, giving the man a small reassuring nod. Safety was near, just half a mile away.

It took them a few more minutes to reach the small shuttlecraft, but the important thing was that they didn't come across any more soldiers on their way. Which, in his humble opinion, wasn't that strange after all.

The shuttle took off under its cloak, speeding on a straight course for the larger ship in orbit. As they exited the planet's atmosphere, Liam immediately registered three Ori warships not far from their current position. There was also the fact that he wasn't seeing his ship, but that changed quickly as the two miles long ship decloaked in front of him. Although his instincts were telling him that finding the safe confines of his larger ship was something he needed to do, he noticed that William was actually turning towards the affronting Ori fleet.

Meaning, they would have to wait until the fight was over.

Liam watched as a lance of antiprotons streaked from the tip of the largest ship in the system. As it went, folding space-time around it, it sliced through one of the Ori ships in front of it as if it didn't even have shields. The other two ships immediately retaliated, firing from their main weapons. His ship turned against its next victim, this time firing from the newly installed heavy baryon beam weapons. Six heavy lances of utterly destructive energy streaked from the massive ship, hitting the Ori ship in front of it. The result was different this time as the ship's shields were enough to stop the weapons from piercing through. The Ori must have further improved their shields, because Liam knew an Ori ship like those they had faced in battle before should not have survived six such blasts. It didn't matter though, as the next moment six more lances hit the same ship and this time even the improvements the Ori must have made were not enough to stop the destructive energy from piercing through.

As the second ship began breaking apart, with secondary explosions happening all over the ship, the third ship must have understood what would happen to it because it quickly turned, attempting to enter hyperspace. It failed. Liam understood William must have activated the device capable of stopping anyone from opening a viable hyperspace window. Also, it must have been more than three minutes since the first ship had been destroyed, because the primary weapon was able to fire again, slicing the last Ori warship and ending the battle.

The man sitting beside Liam stood frozen with his mouth catching flies the entire time. Liam smiled when he saw his expression. "I told you I have a way to fight the Ori. With your help, we will be able to do even more and without the need to kill more people."

The man said nothing. He was still looking at the devastation he was seeing through the craft's frontal view. Three Ori ships, he knew his people had spent a lot of time building, had been destroyed by a _single_ ship, apparently without incurring any damage.

"Well, let's get aboard my ship and leave this place, shall we?" Liam said to the stunned man seating next to him.

"Yeah, yeah… whatever you say," the man somehow replied.

In less than two minutes, the smaller craft they were on docked inside the hangar bay of the larger ships. The ship left the system only moments later.

* * *

**Senari Galaxy – Anomalies  
**_stardate: 2928.33_

At a distance of two hundred thousand kilometers from each other, six massive space stations stood separated, forming a perfect hexagon. Near each of the space stations, an anomaly capable of quickly transferring whatever traveled through it to a far distant galaxy could be seen glowing. In the center of the hexagonal formation, another space station stood watching over the seventh and final central anomaly, the one leading to an unknown place, the place from where the Vargas had initially come. Their last visit had been tens of thousands of years ago and since then the Vargas had never been seen again. This was about to change.

Through the central anomaly, two identical manta-like silver ships each a kilometer long and even wider on it widest points, exited, setting course for the central space station. After a short period in which data had quickly been exchanged between the two ships and the station, one of the ships turned entering hyperspace, while the other slowly proceeded to one of the other six anomalies. Reaching it, the ship simply slipped inside it and disappeared from view.

* * *

**Andromeda Galaxy – Anomaly  
**_stardate: 2928.35_

From the anomaly, the single Vargas warship burst into existence. Making it less than a mile in front of the anomaly, new suns erupted as the antimatter mines detected the intruder and detonated on proximity.

Hundreds kilometers away from the anomaly the four massive weapon platforms, put there by the Guardians and Asgard, powered their main cannons, immediately firing at the newly discovered threat. Lances of utterly destructive energy soared at relativistic speed through space, on their way to meet the unknown ship.

Quickly turning upwards and banking left, the manta-like warship, evaded two of the four lances with incredible grace, with the other two hitting the ship on its underside and making its shields intensely glow. The ship lurched upward above the minefield, before opening a hyperspace window and disappearing inside it.

* * *

**Please leave a review. They're always appreciated. **


	26. The Ascended War I

_**Author's note: **__Well, after having forgotten to push the send button to e-mail this chapter to my beta reader, I finally noticed the Draft(1). It took me only five days to find out something was wrong. The result is this chapter coming out a few days later. _

_This chapter was intended as a one part chapter depicting the entire Ascended War, but somehow I've managed to write a too long introduction, so the chapter quickly became two chapters. And then I wrote a lot more so it ended being three chapters in the end. The good thing is that I'll probably be able to post the rest much quicker than what has become my new glacial schedule. I just have to polish the other two chapters and not forget to push the send button again._

_**Review replies:**_

_**Mattblue: **__Thanks_

_**Neeros: **__Oh yeah! There'll be trouble for Liam. Even some not expected trouble._

_**Queens revenge: **__Having the feeling the review is missing something._

_**LightHuger: **__Oh-ho! I don't like being responsible for promoting addictions ;)_

_**EvilTheLast: **__Why he didn't destroy the shipyards is explained here. Actually the Ori explain that part._

_**Skarosianlifeform: **__You think right… I think. I don't know yet the exact direction in which the Vargas war will go (I still haven't figured out all the details). What I can tell you is that it will be big, very big, and that it will force massive changes. But that's for book number three to tell. Don't like very much giving bits and pieces that are still a long way coming. The third book will be mostly about the Vargas, and other smaller things here and there to make it more interesting._

_Sorry 'bout the vagueness, but I really hate giving things up too early._

_**Sparky555: **__Well, they didn't have inhibitors… uhm… well, because… *blushing*… Damn it! I FORGOT! _

_Okay, that said, let me now find a plausible explanation for the… uhm… lack of inhibitors. _

…_after five minutes of intense thinking… FOUND IT! _

_They did have them, but as everything that needs a lot of power to work, they can't be active at all times. The Vargas, arriving without warning and with only one ship, were able to leave before they could bring them online. HA! That's a plausible enough explanation, right?_

_**DaemontheSecond: **__Well, if they were some pitiful aliens, easy to destroy, I wouldn't have a lot to write in the third book, would I? Don't think their goal is to populate any world though, so, not sure if being allergic would stop them from doing what they have in mind._

_**Trekki859: **__The problem with introducing something with eve online is that I have never played the game. So, it's difficult to come up with ideas about something I know nothing about._

_There'll be changes in the stargates, in time, but for another reason._

_The battle at the end of this book will be epic, with a lot of new tech._

_The Arcturus generator will be introduced, but it will have… uhm… a few glitches._

_**Wraithchild8:**__ Is this site eating words? This isn't the first review I see missing something. For Eli, I do have in mind to introduce him, but I'm still not sure if it will be as part of SGU or in some other role like Rush. _

_**Oddliver: **__I'm glad to hear it. Many times, through reviews, I get new ideas or simply notice something that needs better explanation, which helps makes the story better._

_**StargateFFWriter: **__The Captain Senior Grade title I've found in an SF novel I recently read. I like the idea of there being Junior and Senior Captains just like for lieutenants. In a way it also reflects the Air Force's two colonel titles. The most senior ranks below flag ranks._

_Well, I thought about having an until-the-end kind of battle, but then it occurred to me that maybe they too have at least a few people with enough brain who'd say - Hey! Why the hell are we fighting! Let's leave! - You know._

_True, true. The fight was quick and one sided, but Liam's ship will have his own share of trouble in book number three. Plus, I have a problem, well, not a problem, but rather a different understanding of what a different ship's size brings to the table. Liam's ship is more than double in length than an Ori ship, which means, its volume, and of course mass, is EIGHT times that of an Ori toilet. Isn't it then logical that a ship that needs eight times more material (eight times more expensive), should be at least eight times more powerful, even with the same tech used? If not, there wouldn't be much reason in building bigger ships, would it? If you then add that Liam's ship has more powerful power generation and tech in general, his ship should be more than ten times more powerful than an Ori warship. At least that's how I see it._

_Liam doesn't have just a shield. He has created an area effect field that spreads for twenty light seconds from his ship and prohibits any ascended to inhabit the same region. If not, the Ori could still attack his ship, even though they can't get inside. Which is still a bad thing._

_**Thanks to my beta reader, and hope you'll enjoy this chapter too.**_

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania  
**_stardate:2932.92_

Inside the conference room, the Terran council was once again discussing the many recent developments in the many galaxies of great concern to them. A lot had happened recently and they needed to review the overall situation and maybe even come up with some solutions. Solutions, because those were at the moment desperately needed.

In the middle of the table, a hologram, depicting the Milky Way galaxy, appeared.

"Let's start with the Milky Way galaxy, shall we?" Klaus said to the rest of the council.

"We definitely shall," Jack replied, half humorously, but also trying to hide how worried he really was.

"Alright, let's then start with the various factions currently present in the Milky Way galaxy. The first on the list are the Wraith," Klaus said, touching his tablet that made the central hologram display a region of the Milky Way with several systems colored in green. "These systems we are certain are under Wraith control."

"There are at least two dozen planets under their control," Sam said, not happy at how fast the Wraith were spreading.

"Yes, but the situation is not as bad as it looks at first glance. Only nine planets have a human presence, with the rest consisting of mostly barren planets with no life-forms on them."

"You meant to say, that nine planets _had_ humans on them," Jack added, smartly.

"Unfortunately, yes. We can safely assume that most of those humans are now Wraith, and those that still aren't will soon become as such. But the point that I was trying to make is that the spreading of the Wraith with the use of their retrovirus has greatly slowed down. The reason why is the early warning system we have employed throughout the galaxy. With lookouts on the ground on most planets, we are now able to quickly send the cure to those that have been infected."

"Is the cure a hundred percent successful?" Lisa Giacomini asked.

"Unfortunately, no. There are still a good twenty percent of people that do not respond well to the treatment and seven percent that can't take the cure at all. But the good news is that the test Doctor Beckett has recently developed allows us to find in advance who can take the cure and who can't. At least this way those seven percent don't have to turn out in the fatalities statistics because they took the cure," Klaus explained.

"Yeah, the test works perfectly. That is, except in my case," Jack added, pissed.

"Jack, the test in your case is inconclusive, probably because the test was never meant for Alterran physiology. We actually don't know if the cure would kill you. Or if the retrovirus would even affect you for that matter," Klaus replied.

"Yeah-yeah, I know, but that doesn't make me feel any better," Jack replied. Not knowing if he could be infected and turned into a Wraith or if the cure was deadly for him was a real pain in the ass.

"Nothing we can do about that Jack. Maybe Beckett will eventually be able to refine the test so it will work for you too. Anyway, the positive side is that in the last three weeks, the Wraith were unable to turn even one planet; not their entire populations anyway."

"And what are we doing with those that have turned into Wraith?" Lisa Giacomini asked again. She had been, for the most part, out of the loop when the various wars are concerned.

"Those that are turned into Wraith are sent to another planet under our control. There, the Wraith are turned back into humans with the drug Beckett has developed a while back. But there is a problem there. They need constant treatment if we want to keep them human and the moment we stop treating them they turn back into Wraith."

"For what purpose are we doing this? Can we even keep so many Wraith under constant supervision and treat them constantly?" Paul asked.

"For now yes. Although I'm not certain for how long we'll be able to keep up this way. And unfortunately, this isn't the worst part. The worst part is that there's indication they are slowly building an immunity to Beckett's drug. We need to constantly increase the dosage if we want to keep them human."

"And what happens when even the increase in dosage isn't enough anymore?"

"I know Lisa that you won't like the answer that I'm going to give you, but there's nothing else we _can_ do, not until we find a permanent cure. If that happens, they become Wraith for good, which means we deal with them the way we usually deal with the Wraith. We could kill them the moment it happens, which is my recommendation, or we can let them starve on the planet because there's no chance of us feeding them. Of that, I believe we are all in agreement. But let's not go there yet. Beckett still believes there's a chance he can devise a permanent cure for them."

Lisa didn't like it and it showed, but she said nothing.

"So, the Wraith expanding with their retrovirus has been stopped, and as far as I know the people that are cured with the Hoffan's drug can't be fed upon or turned after that. So, my question is, how long until the Wraith understand that their little ploy with the retrovirus is not working and start employing other methods?" Jack asked, knowing the Wraith didn't come all this way to give up so easily.

"I believe it is a matter of days. We know the Wraith are building more ships on other planets and certainly on more planets we know nothing about, and we need to find them and deal with the problem even more than dealing with the retrovirus," Klaus replied.

"Yeah, which brings us to the _other _problem we are having. The Ori," Jack said.

"Exactly. With the Ori going for human planets with larger populations, our fleet is mostly tied down with the protection of these planets from being taken. Our fleet is mostly tied up to patrol duties or directly protecting the Galarans, Optricans, Pangarans and others who can't defend themselves against an enemy such as the Ori," Klaus replied.

"How's the deployment of ground cannons going?" Daniel asked.

"Bad, that's how," Jack replied, before starting to explain in detail. "A planet like Pangara is not a problem. Their people are all in a three hundred miles radius around the gate, so it's relatively easy to place ground cannons on such worlds. But for example the Galarans are everywhere on their planet, which means they need more than a hundred cannons to cover the entire surface of their planet if we want to be certain the Ori can't target them or land anywhere. In a month, we believe we'll have placed enough cannons to protect the Pangarans, Optricans and Bedrosians, and maybe even the Eurondans, but there's no way we can protect a planet like Galar with only ground cannons. We need mobile units there," Jack answered. "And to make things worse, I'm already getting heat from our beloved representatives on why are we diverting our resources on building ground cannons for planets that are not ours."

"They must realize it is in Earth's best interest to protect other human planets from being taken by the Ori," Daniel replied.

"Daniel, you know it, I know it, everybody in this room knows it, and probably the representatives know it too… or if they are idiots, maybe they don't… and they _are_ idiots so…" Jack began explaining, but he quickly lost his train of thoughts completely ending up in the wrong direction. "Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that it doesn't matter what anybody knows is best, but that the representatives are using this to simply make trouble. Our job is to protect Earth and its holdings and not every human world out there. If god forbids it happens in the future that any of Earth's holdings gets attacked and we lose it, the representatives will simply say that they'd warned us to be more preoccupied with our planets than with planets of others, which they can very well use to raise a vote of no confidence against us."

"Our planets are well defended. I don't think we have to worry about that," Dmitri replied.

"They mostly are Dmitri, but I'm not just talking about planets like Tollana or Terra Nova. I'm talking about our other holdings, like mining or military outposts, that are not that well defended. Their greatest defense is their location being kept secret."

"Alright, the representatives are a problem, but we're moving away from the reason why we convened here today. Let's get back to talking about our other enemies; those not from our planet," Klaus said, seeing how the conversation had taken a life of its own.

"You are right. We were discussing the Ori and how to defend the other human planets. Let's get back to that," Jack replied.

"The Ori have taken Tagrea, the Rand Protectorate and two other major human worlds previously under Goa'uld control. Here the greatest problem is that we can't free those planets from the Ori without risking them detonating the gate and killing everybody on the planet.

"The second problem is the Rand Protectorate now sending their version of priors to spread Origin on other planets. We said we are not going to interfere with normal people spreading Origin as long as they are not forcing people to accept Origin in any way, but apparently the other human worlds didn't get the memo. The Optricans and Langarans are sending teams to other planets with the sole purpose of ambushing anyone who's trying to spread Origin and to unceremoniously kill them on the spot.

"I must say, I can't fault the Langarans for trying to fight the Ori in any way they can, especially after what the Ori did on their planet, but I wasn't expecting the Optricans to so openly take the fight to those that are spreading Origin," Klaus explained in length. "So, my next question is, what are we going to do about it? Or if we even should do anything about it?"

"I think there's nothing we can do," Daniel began saying what he thought their course of action should be, "We told all our allies what the Rand Protectorate is planning to do and that we are not going to chase down those who are spreading Origin in a peaceful way. We can't control what our allies do with that information. And even if we tell them now to stand down, they won't listen, of that I'm certain. The only thing we would accomplish by trying to convince them, would be to anger our own allies. We have no right to tell them what to do in any case."

"I agree Daniel, but we have a problem there too," Klaus said, pausing to get their attention before continuing, "The Ori are uplifting the Rand Protectorate technologically, which means they will soon start retaliating against those that are killing their version of priors. We could soon have another war between the Rand Protectorate and the Optricans or Langarans. And then, we do what?" Klaus explained the crux of the problem.

"We inform the Langarans and Optricans what they are risking if they continue doing what they are doing and we leave it to them to decide if they want to continue doing it at their own peril," Jack replied. "We can't get involved in every shooting that happens in the entire galaxy, or better yet it would be to say _galaxies, _plural_,_ because we have more than one of them to worry about. For now, I think we need to continue on the same line as we are right now. We monitor the Wraith, we try to find where they are building their new ships and we make small raid attacks if the opportunity arises.

"Where the Ori are concerned, we keep protecting our allies and we build as many ground cannons as we can. In a month, when the Pangarans and the Optricans and Bedrosians have enough protection with our ground cannons we will have more ships freed so we can maneuver a little more and maybe even take the fight to the Wraith. Maybe about that time the Asgard will have made some progress too, so they will be able to send a few ships our way. Liam could also make some progress in the Ori galaxy by then, at least I hope."

"I agree. Although, the incursion of the Vargas ship in the Andromeda galaxy is of great concern to all of us," Klaus replied, concerned about the sudden appearance of the race they all feared the most, even more than the Ori.

"For now, there's not much we can do about that. We need to focus on this galaxy and this galaxy only, and leave the Andromeda galaxy to the Guardians to protect it. This is the reason why Liam has left a large portion of his fleet there," Jack said, at the same time not liking the idea of Liam having taken a much smaller fleet to the Ori galaxy than what had been planned in the beginning, but the Senari attacking the central space station, that resulted in a probe having been sent to the Vargas territory, who knows where, had screwed up a lot of plans.

"Alright, let's focus on this galaxy first then. What are we going to do in regards to the Aschen?" Klaus asked the assorted group of people in the room.

"Oy," Jack growled. "There's nothing we can do, except lobby between the Jaffa and the other human races like the Optricans, Langarans and Galarans that have spaceships to make that damn alliance of theirs become a reality so they can fight the war together."

"Such alliance could very well tip the balance in their favor," Dmitri added.

The war between the Aschen and the Jaffa has taken a strange turn. It became a bunch of small skirmishes in which both sides are trying to raid the other whenever possible, but without being able to make any real progress. The Jaffa have fortified their planets, while the Aschen turned their home planet into a fortress that even the Second Great Alliance would have trouble conquering without losing a lot of ships. To make things worse, the Aschen must have placed new crops on some unknown planets, which left the Jaffa without a real target.

The Jaffa also upgraded their ships with the tech the Terrans had reverse engineered from the captured Aschen ship, in turn, making the Jaffa's ships comparable in strength to the Aschen's. The end result is a stalemate between the two races with the Terrans not having any asset available at the moment to tip the balance in favor of the Jaffa.

"You think that the few ships our human allies have can make the difference? I'm not so sure about that," Jack said.

"Well, if we keep our end of the bargain of providing protection for their home planets, they together can send almost thirty warships to fight the Aschen, which could be just enough for our allies to push the Aschen back, but the problem is that they are asking for more in return," Klaus said.

"What are they asking?" Daniel asked.

Jack already knew what, since he had been present at the last meeting between the Jaffa and the other space capable human races, "They want technology from the Jaffa to upgrade their ships before they commit to this alliance."

"And I suppose the Jaffa are not budging on that one," Daniel asked.

"Well, they were categorically against it, but after I talked with Teal'c, _in private_, maybe there's still a chance," Jack said with a guilty expression. "I asked him what they were willing to give to the other human races for their commitment to the fight against the Aschen and he replied they could go as far as to give them tech from Anubis upgrades, but they are not ready to go any further than that. They are not ready to give them the latest in shielding, weapons or power generation, and I think that's understandable."

"And the other races want more, of that I'm certain," Daniel continued, but also looking at Jack with some reservation. There was something fishy here. He could smell it.

"Yeah, they probably would… if they knew what they were getting. But since they don't…" Jack said sheepishly, looking at an invisible dot on the table in front of him, trying to clear it with his nails.

"What?" Daniel said. "You tricked them?"

"Yes Daniel, we did. The Jaffa told them they agree with their terms, and that they are ready to give them the upgrades… it just won't be the latest of what they have. But since the Jaffa are keeping that tech as a very close secret, the other races don't know that what they are getting is simply not _it_."

"And what will happen when they find out?" Daniel asked.

"Why do you think they'll find out? Besides, I told Teal'c that our little conversation had actually never happened and that if it comes out, we the Terrans didn't know anything about it. So, we are free and clear of any wrong doing."

"And when they do find out? And I'm asking _when,_ again, because I know it will eventually come out. What are we going to do if hostilities between the Jaffa and those human races start as a result?" Daniel asked. "You know how touchy some of them are when it comes to being screwed."

"Daniel, you are being too dramatic. There will be no war because of it. The most it could happen is their alliance breaks down, which is the same as what it would be if they don't come up with one in the first place." Looking at Daniel and seeing he was about to say something else he probably wouldn't like, another critique from the looks of it, he decided to continue before that could happen, "Daniel, I'm not saying it is ideal, but it is what it is. We need them to fight the Aschen together because we have no ships to spare. If you have a better way to achieve the same goal, tell me now and I'll make it happen. They still haven't signed the agreement, so there's still time."

Daniel looked as if he was about to explode, but in the end the only thing he could do was to take a deep breath. He really didn't like it, but he too didn't know if there _was_ any other way to convince them either. "I just don't like it Jack, that's all."

"As I said, I don't like it either, but I have no other ideas up my sleeve at the moment that can achieve the same thing."

"Alright, let's finish with this already. What's done is done and for now we have no better solution. Let's talk about the Leptinians and be done with this already," Klaus said, fed up by this entire meeting. He had always been a very pragmatic man, and he knew that only in a perfect universe every deal turned out perfectly, with all parties getting what they want. But since they were in the real one, he knew that in most cases one side always gets screwed, not getting even close to what they wanted. Besides, in this particular case, he was of the opinion that the human races were asking a lot for their involvement in something they should get involved regardless of what they were getting. The Aschen were a problem to everyone, and if the Jaffa lost the war against them, many if not all of those human races would most certainly be next on the Aschen 'to-conquer-list'.

"Good point Klaus; let's finish this," Jack said while looking at his watch. "Any minute now we should get news of how our fleet's latest engagement with the Leptinians went."

The combined forces of the Terrans in the LMC galaxy and the Tikal were scheduled to engage the enemy in a remote system where there was a Leptinian mining operation present. They had known about that particular system for a long time, but only recently the Leptinians had redeployed a large portion of their fleet stationed there to the same system where the city ship Borealis was. It was an opportunity they simply couldn't, and shouldn't, pass on. The Terrans had even postponed the mission to free the system where Borealis was because it suited them to have the Leptinian forces there instead of having them elsewhere defending their own holdings.

As Jack mused about when he'd get news of how the engagement went, Walter entered the room. Jack was happy to see Walter, knowing that he was probably bringing the news of exactly what they were discussing at that exact moment, but his happiness lasted only until he saw Walter's expression. Something was wrong. He didn't know what exactly, but that expression was enough to tell Jack that whatever news Walter was bringing, it wasn't anything anyone in the room would like to hear.

"What is it Walter?" Jack asked, preoccupied.

"Well, sirs, I have just received the preliminary report… the full report will come in later…" Walter began explaining.

"Just spill it Walter," Jack said softly, but also firmly.

"Yes sir. Approximately twenty minutes ago, the combined fleet entered the designated system where the Leptinians have their mining operation. They immediately proceeded to engage the small Leptinian presence in the system, but even before they could reach them, more Leptinian ships came out of hyperspace. It was an ambush, sir. They were awaiting our arrival."

"Go on, Walter," Jack said as he saw Walter pausing for some reason.

"The fleet engaged the Leptinian force in battle, sir, but from the beginning it was apparent that we were the ones on the disadvantage there. Quickly, our fleet was engulfed into a fight against tens of thousands of Leptinian craft preventing them from escaping into hyperspace. Their left flank ended up having been hit the hardest, overwhelmed by most of the enemy forces. It was then that the commander of the assault carrier _Invincible_ understood they were going to lose the battle.

"The _Invincible_ with his escort comprised of three assault frigates and two Tikal warships decided to split from the rest of the fleet, while firing their entire nuclear arsenal, in this instance used to create a sort of wall between the two elements of our fleet and forcing most of the Leptinian craft to follow them or be vaporized by the nuclear detonations. This way, the rest of the fleet was able to leave the engagement and later to free themselves from the much smaller concentration of Leptinian craft that remained with them. They were eventually far enough from the Leptinian swarm to open a hyperspace window and flee the battle.

"The Deadalus, the last ship to leave the battle, also reported having witnessed the _Invincible_, its escort and the two Tikal warships losing their shields, at which point the ships activated their self-destruct, taking many of the Leptinian ships to their deaths with them. Captain Caldwell also said that _Invincible_ acted against orders, sir."

Jack looked at the other members of the council, all unhappy about what they had just heard. "Well, we will leave that last part out of the official report. Those ships probably saved the rest of the fleet from certain death, while sacrificing their own lives. Thank you Walter, you may go now. Send me the complete report the moment it comes in."

"Yes, of course, sir," Walter said, quietly leaving the room.

Klaus was slowly shaking his head, with a thin smile and with no humor in it. "They did it on purpose. The Leptinians have amassed their ships in the same system where Borealis is so we would think they didn't have enough ships to protect their other assets, like that mining outpost. It was just a ruse to lure us in."

"Yes, they did, and we fell for it. Damn it!" Jack said, slamming his fist on the table.

"Even worse, we now know they have more ships than we previously thought," Klaus added, pausing for a moment, "And Jack, with our ships not being the best for fighting that kind of enemy, we are in real trouble there."

"I know Klaus, I know," Jack replied, pensively. This didn't look good. The Terrans had a powerful fleet, but there was something to say about numbers too. With Home Fleet permanently stationed to protect Earth, with Second Fleet orbiting Asura for the same reason and with two additional task forces detached to Tollana and Terra Nova, they were barely finding the ships to protect their other assets in the galaxy and the other human planets. They simply didn't have enough of them, and no one wanted to take ships from Home Fleet or from Second Fleet, much less from the much smaller task forces stationed in orbit around their other two colonies. If the Ori or the Wraith decided to target any of them, they needed the mobile units in those systems to prevent a siege; something that could not be prevented with fixed system defenses.

"That's true, our ships are not the best equipped to deal with swarms of smaller craft, but it doesn't mean it needs to stay that way," Sam added.

Jack woke up from his train of thoughts, looking at Sam with an eyebrow raised, "You have something in mind, don't you?"

"I think I do. Does anyone remember the R&D having developed a larger version of the zat-gun for our ships a while back?" Sam asked, noticing a few people in the council nodding in confirmation. "Well, when we first heard about the Leptinians we knew we needed something better than what we had to fight them, something better than our railguns or even our plasma repeaters. So, my guys in the R&D began building a zat-cannon that can be mounted on our ships instead of our railguns or plasma repeaters."

"Okay, I know the zat-cannon has a much greater accuracy than plasma repeaters or railguns, but what else can such weapon provide to tip the balance in our favor that the other types of weapon we have can't?" Paul asked, not understanding why shooting a zat discharge is better than shooting plasma or slugs. They could still install the same number of them as of railguns or plasma repeaters on their ships. So, the gain could only be marginal.

"Well, the guys at R&D started this project because they thought they could modify the zat discharge so that, when it hits a craft, the surplus discharge jumps to nearby craft, and so on and so on. Get it?" Sam answered the question, now waiting to see if the others understood the possible benefits of such weapon.

"Oh, that sounds interesting," Jack said, smiling. "How many craft do you think we can hit with one shot?"

"Well, it depends on the strength of the zat-cannon. The R&D had made a few different versions with one as large as our plasma beam weapon. That one could possibly spread to hundreds of smaller craft, frying them all in one shot. The smaller, railgun-size cannons should be able to hit two to four with each shot."

"Jack likes it! Let's get those gremlins a shock they'll remember forever!" Jack almost shouted. "How soon can we start producing them?"

"Well, the prototype has been successfully tested, so it is a matter of production now and not R&D," Sam replied, turning to face Paul.

Paul thought about it for a moment, and then replied with determination. "I'll give priority for their production to all our manufacturing facilities and I'm giving the order to every available shipyard to be ready to upgrade any ship you, Jack, decide to have these weapons installed on board," The Leptinians were apparently going to pay dearly for this ambush.

At that point, another Jack entered the room, "I'm back!"

A deflated chorus of grunts and quiet mumbling was heard in the room, with one of the voices belonging to the other Jack.

"Nice to see I've been missed," a slightly deflated Jack number one, the original one, replied.

"Does this mean I have to go see the Nox?" a frightened Jack number two asked.

"Don't worry, it's great!" the Jack that just came in replied to the other Jack. "There's beer, there's fishing; it is like the vacation we had on Eden Prime."

"Really!"

"You betcha! I was worried too, but it turns out this has ended up being the best vacation ever. I almost didn't want to come back."

"Really! When can I go!" the other Jack replied, looking at the others expectantly.

"You can go immediately. I'll take all your duties," Jack number one replied confidently. "I feel so refreshed that I could work for days without rest."

"Bye guys. See ya," the other Jack said, storming out of the room on his way to Heliopolis and the Nox complex on the planet.

"Wow, Jack. I didn't think you'd have liked it so much," Sam said in puzzlement. She was sure he would have hated it; just like she did.

"No Carter! It was a total nightmare! A two months long nightmare to be more precise," Jack replied, glaring at Sam, currently the focus of his irritation.

"What about what you've just said? With the beer and fishing?" Sam asked, although, she already knew the answer.

"No beer, no fishing. Just a lot of nothing while sitting around a table in the middle of a very large forest and other Kumbaya crap!"

"Oh, now I get it. So you screwed the other you on purpose," Daniel interjected into what had apparently become a conversation between Jack and Sam.

"Yes, I did, Daniel," Jack replied, with a grin.

"Jack, don't you think that it looks kinda… _weird_ to do that to the other you?" Sam asked.

"Why do you think that Sam?" Jack asked, definitely going with that question somewhere.

"Well, in a way it feels almost like playing a prank on… _yourself_. Doesn't it?" Sam asked.

"Well Sam, to me it feels the same as what you did to _me_! Weren't you the one who told me there would be _beer... _and _fishing? _After all, we are supposed to be friends, aren't we?" Jack replied, giving Sam a stern look.

Sam blushed, sheepishly looking at the table, "Well, yeah… kinda."

"Yeah, I thought so too. So, can you imagine how surprised I was when I entered the Nox complex and found no pond, or lake, or even river _anywhere_? And _especially_ no beer? And of course no way of getting out for that matter without the Nox permission? And I tried, _several_ times!" Jack asked Sam, quickly turning to look at the others all stifling a laugh. At least, that was 'till Jack's not very happy expression, was now directed at _them _with narrowed eyes.

They couldn't be sure, but they could swear they felt a disturbance in the force around the man, with dark clouds the only thing missing to create a full picture of his current mood. It was a disturbance that must have accumulated for the past two months.

Giving a myriad of different excuses, the council quickly disappeared from the council room, some through the only door available, while others rather opting to directly call and ask for an urgent beaming.

Sam quickly found herself standing in the council chamber with only Jack present. _Cowards!_

Not knowing what to do exactly or how to respond to Jack's question, with a sheepish smile she said the only thing that came on her mind, "Lunch?"

Jack waited in silence for a long time. "Sure. This way you can tell me everything I missed in these two months."

"Everything?"

"Yes, everything. Oh, don't worry. I'm sure it won't take, oh I don't know, more than five or six hours."

"_Crap!_"

"And no complaining."

"Fine," a deflated voice was heard replying.

_Seven_ hours later, on the opposite sides of a small table, in an otherwise empty mess hall, Jack and Sam were seated and she was just about to finish explaining what happened in the last two months Jack had since missed.

"…and that's the gist of it," Sam said with a raspy voice. Tomorrow, she probably won't be able to talk.

"So, definitely not good then," Jack replied quietly. It even sounded as the understatement of the year. "How did the Wraith come here so quickly from Pegasus?"

"We are not sure, but as I mentioned earlier, that's not the only change we've discovered where the Wraith are concerned." The thing that bothered Sam the most, in fact, wasn't their increase in speed, but rather their new ability to create shields for their cruisers. It was a clear indication their power production capabilities aboard their ships has gone up, and not by a negligible amount either. And she also knew such increase in power would also allow them to build tougher ships too.

"How do you think our smaller ships will fare against those shielded cruisers?" Jack replied as if he was reading Sam's thoughts.

"Don't know. I'm sure the R&D is already analyzing the recordings of the latest battle and trying to compare the already known Aschen weapons strength against Wraith shields to get a feel on how strong they are, but I can even now tell you that it took a lot of punishment from the Aschen ships having engaged them to go through their shields."

Jack smiled, thinking about the idea his double had about forcing a meeting between the four enemy races. "That was a great idea though. To make them meet, I mean."

Sam looked at him. He was fishing for compliments even though he hadn't been the one to come up with the idea. But since it had been his double's idea, it was almost as if _he _had come up with it. "I don't know. Maybe they'll gang up against us now that they've met," Sam replied with a thin smile of her own. She was not about to give him the satisfaction by stating that it _was_ in fact a good idea, no matter the fact that she thought an alliance between any of those races was very unlikely.

Jack stopped smiling and narrowed his eyes. He knew _exactly_ what she was trying to do. "Nah! There's not one chance in hell those races can come up with some kind of deal."

"Probably, but… you simply never know. Only time will tell."

Jack nodded, by now already thinking about the entire situation. Suddenly, a very unpleasant thought crossed his mind. Maybe he was better off if he stayed with the Nox for a while longer. His double did leave him with a hot potato to deal with after all. "We must, _somehow_, find a way to get rid of at least one enemy."

"Well, that same thought I'm sure has crossed the minds of every member of the council, but the problem is how? And which one too!"

"The Ori," Jack replied simply.

Sam looked at him, thinking. _Why the Ori?_ She would rather face the Aschen than the Ori. Maybe transfer a few ships to the Jaffa so they could push them back. Then they'd at the very least be able to besiege them in their home system. It wouldn't be a decisive victory, but it would at least be something that was at the moment attainable. "Why them?"

"Because of Liam."

"We don't know how his little visit to the Ori galaxy is going. For all we know, his mission could turn out to be a complete failure."

"True, true. But, if it is, we're screwed no matter what, aren't we?" Jack watched Sam reluctantly nod in agreement. "So our only real chance is to think his mission _won't_ turn out to be a bust. We must think he'll succeed and we must plan accordingly. Plus, we know the ascended are planning something nasty. I think Liam's assertion that they're recruiting humans in order to face the Ori was dead on, no matter the fact that Ilium didn't confirm it."

"Wow! Wait a minute! That's a lot of ifs if you ask me. If Liam succeeds, if the ascended are planning what you think they are planning, if we _even _have ships we can free to do anything. Don't you think this can go very badly if we plan to strike at them and it turns out none of those assumptions have any foundation in reality?"

"Of course it can go badly! And I know it's a risk going on the offensive when we don't have enough ships to cover our rear. But if we don't risk we have no chance of winning either. And you know as well as I do that our current purely reactionary strategy so far hasn't worked out very well, has it? In the past year the only thing we accomplished has been the protection, with various degrees of success I might add, of our planets and those of our allies, and to pile up more and more enemies. If we don't start thinking in terms of offensive strategies, whatever we decide they are going to be, this entire war will eventually end up very badly for us, I can confidently tell you that much."

"You're going with the 'a good offense is the best defense' theory, aren't you?" Sam asked.

"I do. I think it is time for our enemies to be on the defensive for a change. If we squeeze them hard enough, they'll need to start redeploying their war machine much closer to home, and they'll have much less time thinking about the next sneaky plan on how to take the fight to us. I think that, if we'd gone on the offensive with the Aschen even sooner, there's a good chance they would never have even come up with the plan to infiltrate the Chinese colony in order to take out Earth with their bioweapon. Did you notice how we haven't so much as caught a whiff of them ever since we retaliated after the attack on Earth? No matter the fact that what we ended up doing wasn't our initial plan, but they for the first time must have realized that if they piss us off, we'll bring a hammer down on them. Plus, the destruction of so many orbital shipyards must have forced them to reevaluate how quickly they can replenish the losses they are sustaining in the war against the Jaffa. Never before have the Aschen been so reluctant to push deeper in Jaffa territory. And I can bet their calculative and all logical brain is telling them right now that if they lose too many ships in an ill-conceived operation, they won't have enough shipyards to recuperate in time."

Sam was thoughtful for a long time. She couldn't fault Jack's way of thinking. And yet, she didn't understand why the Ori. "So why the Ori then and not the Aschen?"

"Because, neither we, nor the Jaffa are prepared to go all the way and pull the final trigger. Yes, we can push them hard, maybe even force them all the way back to their home system, but we still can't pull the last trigger, which means we'd still have to keep a strong presence to keep the Aschen in their system. And I don't like the idea of diverting a large number of ships for a long period of time to babysit them in their home system. We would end up having the same problem than we have now, or worse. But, if we end the Ori once and for all, we will actually free ships instead of tying them down."

"Alright, but what exactly _can_ we do that Liam and the ascended can't do on their own?" Sam asked.

"Well, let's suppose Liam deals with the Ori followers in their galaxy. Let's then suppose the ascended Alterrans will then be able to fight the Ori without the Ori sapping energy from their followers in order to increase their power, and let's assume they succeed in their attempt. We still know the ascended are not going to take actions against Adria and her 'Hallowed are the Ori' sycophants we call priors. They won't do anything against her while she's in the lower plane. All this means that even if they're successful, _we _are the ones who'll still need to deal with that bi…*_cough_*… I mean with Adria and the forces she has already amassed here in our corner of the Universe."

Sam did see the logic in what Jack was saying, and she knew that knocking the Ori for good would actually be the equivalent of an overall victory in the Milky Way galaxy. With the pressure of the Ori gone, they could easily turn against the Aschen, Leptinians or Wraith, in whatever order they choose, with total confidence of their success in beating the crap out of them one by one. "All right. This does sound good. But how do you propose we synchronize our offensive operation against Adria with what Liam is doing in the Ori galaxy and what the Alterrans in the higher plane plan to do against the Ori?"

"Well, that I admit is a tricky question. What I can tell you, and in no way am I sure about this, is that I have a very strong feeling we'll get a sign when it's the right time to act."

"Oh well, now that you added divine intervention telling us when to act to the myriad of assumptions, I feel much better, thank you very much," Sam replied sarcastically.

"I know, I know, it sounds _nuts _even to me, but I can't shake the feeling that _that's _exactly what's going to happen. Or at least _supposed_ to happen anyway."

"You aren't going all mystical on me, are you?" Sam asked. She knew Jack, behind all his weirdness, was one of the most logical people she knew, one who could assess a situation and come up with the right strategy in a heartbeat, but now that he was starting to talk about signs and things that were supposed to happen, she was beginning to worry about him. Maybe he did indeed stick his head a few too many times in that head sucking thingy. Or maybe having sent him for two months to live with the Nox hadn't been such a good idea after all.

"Sam, I'm not going all mystical on you. It's just… _a_ _hunch_, that's all. I just have this strong feeling that that's what we need to do."

"All right, if you are so sure. Besides, I too think we need to be a little more proactive. But - _for the love of God_! - Please don't start talking about signs and what's supposed to happen when you try to convince the rest of the council, all right? Because, if you do, there's a _much _better chance of you ending up in a strait jacket than convincing them of the validity of your plan."

"Point taken."

* * *

**Ori Galaxy – Finding the Ark  
**_stardate: 2937.19_

It was time to face the music. He needed to find the Ark of Truth and use it in order to weaken the Ori, no matter what it took. Once the Ori were to lose support from their followers, his brothers and sisters would be finally able to act. The only problem was that Hertis, the man who'd helped him locate the Alterrans' planet of origin, the one where the Ark was supposedly located, had explained how the Ori had built Celestis on the ground as their capital and symbol of power. And Ori-central would most certainly be more then well defended.

The sensible thing for Liam to do would be to wait for the rest of the fleet currently in the Ori galaxy to rendezvous with him before the final push, before the strike at Celestis, but he was well aware of how he was running out of time. The Ori could decide to strike at the ascended Alterrans at any moment – he was more than certain the Ori were well aware of his little incursion into their galaxy – and even with the recruiting of humans Liam was aware the Alterrans had been doing for the past six months, there was still a chance they could lose. And if they lost because he'd waited too long, it would be his fault.

The massive ship jerked as it exited hyperspace at the outskirt of Celestis' system, around twenty light-minutes from the system's primary and almost eleven light-minutes from the planet Celestis. He had planned to exit far away from the planet since he knew there would be a strong welcoming party waiting in the system.

And he wasn't wrong.

William stepped closer to Liam, "I'm detecting three dozen Ori ships in orbit above Celestis and, if I'm not mistaken, there is a field preventing us from opening a hyperspace window anywhere in the system. If we are to push further in-system, we won't be able to escape."

Liam nodded. It was as he had predicted. A strong defensive force and a dampening field blocking their escape. Worse than that, he knew he was unable to shift his ship into another dimension, the one where no one could touch him since he had to keep the anti-ascended field active at all times if he didn't want to have Ori anywhere near him.

And three dozen ships – no matter how strong he believed his ship was – were simply too much to take head on.

"So, we have a problem here," Liam said with a frown.

"I would say we do, yes," William replied with amusement. He was always fascinated how Liam liked to understate a situation. "The Ori ships have engaged their engines at full trust. Well, eleven light-minutes even with a constant acceleration of 500 gravities and a turnover if they intend a zero/zero intercept with us, it will take them - _what?_ - a little under 15 hours to reach us."

A zero/zero intercept meant that the two ships would be at a zero relative velocity in regard to each other. Unfortunately, or in this case rather fortunately, physics was merciless in regard to space travel when entering hyperspace and making a short jump was impossible. If the ship constantly accelerated at 500 gravities – of course only possible because of the inertial dampeners because without them the crew on board would simply turn into goo – once it crossed half the distance, it needed to decelerate with the same 500 gravities in order to stop if they weren't to simply overshoot their target. If they were to push at max acceleration for the entire length they would reach them much sooner, in a little over ten and a half hours, but at that point they would be traveling at a speed close to 19 thousand KPS (kilometer per second) or .06 the speed of light. They would simply be a blip overshooting their intended prey, unable to slow down for the next ten hours or so.

"All of them?" Liam asked, incredulously. Sending the entire task force to meet them while leaving the planet undefended was very bad strategy in anyone asked him, but he'd also realized something else even before William could reply. When they dropped out of hyperspace, their anti-ascended field must have pushed every ascended being present in the system to flee away in order to survive, which meant the Fire on Celestis had stopped burning, which also meant there was a good chance the Doci and the other priors were at the moment panicking. And if that were true, their first reaction would be to destroy the intruder in hope the Fire would start burning once again.

"All of them," William confirmed Liam's suspicions.

"That's definitely a mistake. I understand their wish to get rid of us, but isn't this a gross strategic error on their part?"

"I would say it is, but you must also take into account that they are fully aware how powerful this ship is, and more than that, that they've lost contact with their masters. Right about now, their Doci must be looking at the extinguished Fire Daniel mentioned sweating and in full panic mode."

"That's true. Panic usually tends to make you do stupid things," Liam replied, with a smile, "and I intend to take full advantage of the situation. William, are you up to a little hide and seek game?"

William looked at Liam's smiley face, "You want me to go around in circles, with them following me? And what are _you_ going to do in the meantime?" William replied, understanding that Liam wasn't intending to remain on the ship. If he was, he wouldn't have to ask.

"Don't keep them just chasing you. You must engage them from time to time. It must look like you're trying to reach the planet, but without success," Liam explained. "In the meantime, I'm taking a cloaked corvette and a dozen Guardians to search for the Ark."

"You don't think they'll detect your cloaked ship?" William was fully aware his ship could not use its cloak. The anti-ascended field would allow the enemy to pinpoint the ship's location by just measuring the field's size and finding the center. But even using the cloak, even without such limitations, was dangerous. After all, this was the Ori home system, and they could have very powerful sensors here.

"I'm taking the scenic route, so I won't get anywhere near any of those ships. It should be fairly easy to slip past them. And I'm hoping their overconfidence that nobody could be so foolish to attack this system with the ascended Ori present, has made them think placing sensor platforms was unnecessary."

"All right. It's your call. How do you intend to find the Ark?"

"I think I remember the general location from when I was ascended. I'm hoping more will come back to me once I'm near it."

"Not a sure thing then."

"There's never certainty in life," Liam replied philosophically. "Besides, I don't have any other way to find it, so, it is that or we pack and leave."

William nodded before wishing him good luck. Liam left the bridge in a bright flash of light, appearing in the largest hangar on the ship, the one holding the corvette. As he went to the ramp, leading to the opening in the port side, he noticed twelve Guardians entering the hangar and moving in his direction. William must have informed them their services were needed, and since they were on high alert ever since they'd reached the Ori galaxy, they'd been able to reach the hangar almost as fast as he did.

The liftoff procedure had taken another ten minutes. The ship had powered its engines and engaged its cloak even before leaving the hangar. Once outside, the ship sped in the almost opposite direction of the fast accelerating larger ship. If William were able to keep the Ori toilets busy, he was certain he would be able to freely search the planet for the Ark without worrying about anything coming from above. He didn't know what kind of presence he would find on the planet, but he hoped it wouldn't be too strong. After all, the ascended Ori were here to protect the planet against anyone and anything, _right?_

Liam reclined the comfortable chair he was seated in. It would be a long voyage. With the, as he called it, scenic route, in order to evade the incoming warships, it would take him almost 18 hours to reach the planet on a zero/zero intercept.

* * *

**Ori Galaxy - Higher Plane  
**_stardate: 2938.71_

In a vast and seemingly empty place, with no real observable objects which would allow someone to deduce its relative position, a group of ascended beings stood motionless.

"We have no way of knowing what is happening on Celestis," one of the Ori Elders stated, worriedly. Looking at the others, he sensed they were worried too.

"How is this possible? How can someone prevent us from accessing such a vast area of the lower plane?"

"The answer to the question how it is possible I cannot give you, but what we know is at least who," another Elder replied, immediately noticing how the already worried expression of his brethren deepened as a result. "The first occurrence of this unknown blocking field happened near the supergate, which means the intruders brought it to this galaxy from the Milky Way."

"Do you believe it is the work of the Alterran that descended? The one that threatened us and that turned one of our priors back into a mere human?"

"It is a possibility. Maybe his threat wasn't as empty as we believed it was."

"But what can he hope to achieve by coming here? I understand that his ability to block us from destroying him is of great concern, but he still can't target us directly. And he can't possibly believe he can take an entire galaxy of humans away from us."

"Visa is right. There are only four small task forces. No more than a dozen ships if the witnesses that survived the attacks are to be believed. And we know they do not intend to commit genocide on the planets they visit. They are destroying shipyards only, while leaving the rest of the humans on those planets unharmed."

"And we have too many shipyards on too many planets for them to find them all, much less destroy them. Our ships have already been able to destroy one of their ships. It is only a matter of time before more suffer the same fate. And they don't have the advantage of surprise anymore."

Ornu, the first Elder who had spoken, was pensive. He didn't share his brethren's certainty. There was more going on here. "I'd agree with you if the first world to be attacked, the one where three of our ships in orbit have been destroyed, didn't still have all of its shipyards intact."

"I don't see how this is relevant. I have to admit, it is peculiar those shipyards on the surface haven't been targeted, but there could be any number of reasons for that."

"Such as?" Visa asked. Now that Ornu had raised the question, she was worried what it possibly meant.

"I don't know. I can't see any," the same Ori replied.

"At the moment, it is not as important to know _why_, as much as it is to know that they haven't been," Ornu added, looking at the strange looks he began receiving as a result. He shrugged, "You need to take into account that the same ship that went to that planet, proceeded directly to Celestis."

"Which means… what exactly?" Visa asked.

If he had eyes, at that exact moment, Ornu would have had rolled them. Apparently, he needed to explain everything. "The only reason to leave those shipyards standing is if they became completely irrelevant. It means that whatever the intruders found on that planet, and the fact that they went straight to Celestis next, is much more important than a few destroyed shipyards. And _that's_ why I don't agree with your assessment and why I'm even more worried."

Now it was time for the others to remain silent and to think hard. Visa was the first to break the silence. "What could be so important on Celestis for such change in their plan? Not the planet with the still intact shipyards and not even Celestis has anything of value. Sure, they can hurt us if they destroy Celestis, but no more than the destruction of any shipyard can."

"You are all forgetting who, once upon a time, lived on Celestis. You should also remember that there were rumors of the Alterrans having created a weapon that was supposedly capable of ending the war between our two races even before they left this galaxy, but that for some reason they haven't used it. Knowing them, it was probably some moral reason for not using it; a moral reason that apparently _this _Alterran is not sharing with his ascended brethren."

"You mean, if the rumors were true and they indeed were able to create such a weapon?" the third Ori Elder replied sarcastically, showing his full reluctance to believe in such rumors.

Ornu took a mental deep breath. He was gradually losing patience, "Hey! If any of you have a better theory on why they left that planet without blasting the shipyards on the surface and why they proceeded with such haste towards Celestis, I'm all ears."

"No, I don't have a better theory, which doesn't mean we should entertain the notion of a secret Alterran weapon still intact on Celestis either," one of the Elders replied. The idea of a secret weapon still on Celestis after so many millions of years since the Alterrans had left was simply preposterous.

"No, Ornu is right," Visa replied almost immediately. "We need to take the worst case scenario as the basis for our future actions here. Too many times we've been overconfident, especially when these Terrans, and that Alterran that has descended, are concerned. And such recklessness has cost us dearly. We cannot continue doing the same mistakes, not if we don't want for this war to end up badly for us."

The third Elder looked at Visa incredulous, but he as well shared her belief how previous dismissal of the Alterran as a real threat had complicated things. "What do you propose we do then?"

"We need to take into account the possibility that our time of waiting has run out. We need to believe that whatever is currently going on on Celestis can mean our complete destruction. And we need to act accordingly," Visa said with conviction.

Ornu was startled when he heard those words. He knew exactly what she meant and he didn't like it. He was well aware how Visa had always been the one to insist that it was time to strike at their enemy, regardless of how many followers they'd managed to bring to their side in the Milky Way galaxy. Now, he wasn't certain if Visa really agreed with him on what could be hidden somewhere on Celestis, or if she simply used this unfortunate turn of events to force the others to side with her. On the other hand, it didn't really matter why she sided with him. If it was true there was something on Celestis that could harm them and they didn't have a way to reach the planet, they needed to act now before it was too late. "So, you believe the time has come to attack the Alterrans?"

"I think we have no choice, no matter if we think we are or aren't ready. Not anymore, Ornu," Visa replied.

"But we don't have enough followers in the Milky Way galaxy," the third member interjected.

"You know as well as I do that we can keep the supergate active and sap power from our followers from this galaxy," Visa replied.

"And you very well know that _that_ is far from being the same thing," Ornu said. "Being in the same galaxy where your followers are and having a bottleneck like a supergate as the only conduit to our source of power is far from adequate compensation."

"I never said it is the same. I'm just saying that, it will have to be enough."

Ornu growled in frustration. "Oh how I hate that 'it will have to be enough' part."

Visa sighed, "You were the one who raised the point of Celestis having some super-weapon. Are you now backing out from that possibility?"

Ornu remained thoughtful for a long time, the entire time staring at Visa. He could sense her excitement at the possibility of them finally engaging the Alterrans. Then, he finally decided. "No, I'm not. I agree the time has come to take action. We cannot postpone our direct involvement as we did so far, not anymore, unfortunately. Now that there's a real threat to us that shouldn't be underestimated, much less ignored, we don't have the luxury to wait. Go and gather the others. We will all meet at the supergate."

Visa smiled viciously. _Finally!_

* * *

_**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**_


	27. The Ascended War II

_**Author's note: **__Well, here's the second part. As promised I was able to put it together faster than my new usual. There's still the third part I'm working on, a sort of epilogue of the Ascended War. It will probably be complete for next week. Not sure though._

_**Reviews: **_

_**Mattblue, Rudy Pena: **__more coming right away._

_**E.S. Ascher: **__Thanks. I must admit, it took some thinking to come up with this chapter._

_**MalSer: **__Well, it was a pretty long introduction, much more than I have initially planned. It should have been one chapter for everything and turned out to be three chapters, but I think it's better this way in the end._

_**Oddliver: **__Yeah, that's exactly why I usually don't post on Fridays or Saturdays. Hope the chapter was… uhm… clearer in the morning._

_**Skarosianlifeform: **__Sometimes I forget about character development and their interaction and start writing action scenes only, but other times I remember to put some dialog too._

_The Terrans attacking the Leptinians because the Wraith Queen plans to take the fight to the Aschen doesn't fit here because they don't know what she's planning. Remember, they can only work with what they know, and not everything I wrote. You know about the discussion between the Queen and Todd, but the Terrans don't. So, who's next on their list is still open to discussion._

_What you wrote about the Asgard and Vanir is exactly my problem why I'm partially stuck on that front. For now, the Asgard are canvasing Pegasus in search for them (with the usual problem of a galaxy being a very big place), but I think I've come up with something and I'll write about it in the coming chapters._

_No, the current wars will come to a conclusion, in one way or another, before the end of book two. I don't intend to unnecessarily prolong them just for the sake of having more to write in the third book either, which will almost exclusively __be about the Vargas. So, no worries there._

_**Besoin: **__I always regretted the way the show ended the Ori with that do-hickey, without any involvement from the Alterrans. I'm going to change that._

_**Ryaaaaann: **__That's because, deep down, I'm a very evil person who likes to torture people with cliffhangers whenever I get the chance. *evil laugh!*_

_As I stated at the beginning of the last chapter, the problem is that one chapter turned into three with almost 30 000 words total. It was simply too much to put it out in one go, and it would also have delayed the posting of the previous chapter, possibly even for weeks._

_As far as enemies goes, they indeed do have a lot of them. The Ori, Wraith and Aschen in the MW galaxy, the Leptinians in the LMC galaxy, the Vanir and Gray Aliens in Pegasus, and the Sanarians in the distant dubbed Furling galaxy. And then there's the Vargas, already on the horizon. ;)_

_**Prister0008: **__Well, thanks for the offer. Except for the Stargate/Galactica spinoff I was planning, and is currently going nowhere, this story is going pretty great for now._

_**Nothingnoir: **__When I get in line in a bank, and have to wait twenty minutes to even reach the clerk, that's annoying. When I get stuck in traffic and notice I moved less than a car's length in the last ten minutes, that's definitely annoying. Having to spend – what? – five seconds to scroll to the first line of the story (granted you intend to skip all the replies), I wouldn't go as far as to call it annoying. Besides, the reason why I post replies at the beginning of the following chapter is because, sometimes, I read the reviews on stories I'm reading and have the same or similar question. So, even though I haven't posted the question, I like to be able to read the author's answer. That's why I'm doing the same, allowing others to read the answers even though they didn't directly post the question._

_**EvilTheLast:**__ I did feel it would be right in Jack's character to screw his double. Although, it will be hell to pay when he comes back._

_As far as tricking the Ori or Wraith to attack the Aschen, that's' the problem, is it? Usually, it is very difficult to force someone to do what you want and they don't. In this case, really have no idea on how to accomplish that. Besides, Jack doesn't plan on taking out the Ori. He's planning to mop up what's left after Liam and the ascended Alterrans do their thing, only after getting… uhm… a clear sign the coast is clear, in which case the remaining Ori followers do start to look like, as you put it, the smallest bully on the block, don't they?_

_**Thanks to my beta, and hope you all will like this chapter too.**_

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – The Higher Plane  
**… _six months earlier_**  
**

It was very bright, John had to admit it. Everywhere he looked, there was nothing to see except for more brightness; brightness, apparently coming from everywhere. It was like floating in the void of space far in between galaxies, just instead of being pitch-black, it was pitch-bright. He had ascended, and he could clearly remember the moment when his body had given up, and a soft voice told him this wasn't the end after all. But he couldn't remember much more than that, and that bothered him.

_Rodney!_

Rodney had been on the bed next to his when he'd ascended, but he couldn't remember what had happened to him.

_Did he ascend as well, or was he still in his bed back on Asura?_

He wanted to know if Rodney had ascended. He wanted to know if his friend was okay.

It was then that he sensed something, or rather someone, behind him. He turned and saw an ethereal form standing there, glowing brightly and with tentacles of pure energy spreading from its body. He didn't know how, but he somehow could sense this entity was indeed Rodney.

"Rodney?" John asked, still uncertain.

The entity seemed to turn in his direction, "John? Is that you?"

John smiled. His friend was alive, and at the moment, that was all that mattered. "Do you remember what happened to us?"

Rodney thought about it for a moment, "No. Not really. I have the slight feeling that someone helped us ascend though, I clearly remember having heard a voice telling us something before we died, but more than that… I'm just not sure."

"I was the one who helped you ascend," the same voice was heard again.

John turned to look at the entity floating near the two of them. At least he thought it was near, because it was very difficult to discern distances or the way Rodney, or this new entity, had popped up, seemingly out of nowhere. It was pretty disconcerting too, if someone asked him. "And you are?"

"My name is Oma Desala."

"Oma? You are the one who helped Daniel ascend, aren't you?" John asked.

"I am," Oma replied simply. "And do you remember why I helped ascend the two of you?"

John thought about it. He had no clue. "No."

"The Ori!" Rodney replied, having just received an epiphany. "You said you'll need our help to fight the Ori, I remember now."

"You are correct. I offered you salvation if you were ready to fight the Ori if and when they came. You agreed to that condition."

"Oh yeah, I remember now. You said something about the Ori coming in person and that, when that happens, we would have no choice but to fight them," John replied.

Oma nodded, or at least John thought it was a nod, "There is a long road ahead of you in order to learn what being an ascended being means before you can face the Ori in battle."

"And you are going to teach us?" Rodney said.

"Amongst others."

* * *

… _present time_

The last six months had been intense. John thought about everything he'd learned in that time and he had to admit, it had been a lot. The first big revelation had been that ascended beings don't automatically know everything there is to know about the universe, the same as that they too need time to learn new things. Something that had become immediately apparent, even before their first lesson had ended. He'd also thought he'd immediately be taught how to fight the Ori, but that hadn't been the case. Their first lesson had been about… learning how to fly, and he'd had the feeling he was learning how to walk, all over again!

It wasn't as if he didn't know how to move in this strange place, but when you didn't know where you were, where your intended destination was, or at which speed you were actually moving, it wasn't really useful to simply _know_ how to move. So, the first thing he and Rodney had to learn was to understand where they were in relation to other celestial bodies in the material plane of existence, their previous plane of residency.

It took some time, but, with Oma's help, he'd been able to focus enough to finally _see _something except the bright emptiness of the higher plane. What he'd seen next was faint black dots everywhere around him. These dots were black holes, stars and sometimes he even saw planets, but only if close enough to a star. In short, objects with high gravitational force were visible because only gravity, as strong as that created by massive celestial bodies, was strong enough to penetrate all the way through to the higher plane of existence, which was also incredibly important if you wanted to know where you were and where you wanted to go without the need to transfer into the lower plane and look around, which was also something at that point through their basic training they still hadn't learned how to do.

Not that those dots he could now see were telling him much though. Most stars looked the same, and only black holes were slightly bigger dots, allowing him to distinguish them from stars. Planets had been completely invisible until he'd moved much closer to a star and this way finally seeing the surrounding planets.

He also had to admit that Rodney was faster at learning the whole flying thing than he was (which royally pissed him off, and one thing he would never admit to anyone, much less to him). Nevertheless, both of them had been, in Oma's words, pretty good students at learning the basics.

Another thing he really didn't like was the fact that there was no chance whatsoever of seeing anything outside the galaxy they were currently residing in. The Milky Way galaxy was simply too distant to see it. Oma had explained that it was also very dangerous for newbies to venture outside a galaxy without supervision because they could get lost. They could simply get stuck not knowing where to go because in the space between galaxies they simply couldn't see anything that would help them orient. At least that had been true until they'd learned how to transfer their essence into the lower plane in order to look around, which had come much later in their 'How-to-become-a-proficient-ascended-being' crash course. But before that, they needed to learn another very important thing.

Beings in the lower plane were stuck with the notion of time. Everything that happened around them, happened at a certain pace, giving the notion of the perceived passage of time, and unfortunately after somebody ascended, he was still set to that same notion.

Which in this alien place was far from a useful thing.

While beings made of flesh and blood perceived their surroundings through their senses, that are afterwards processed as information at the speed at which signals travel and neurons fire in their brains, ascended beings were made of an energy matrix with no such limitations. It meant, they could speed up or slow down their perception of events unfolding. Oma had further explained that, when you wanted to move faster, instead of trying to just move through space at an increased speed, you needed to think more in terms of trying to travel slower through time. You needed to think in terms of speeding up the level of your perception of the place you were in. In the end, a voyage from point A to point B would take the same perceived time interval, but since you slowed down time by increasing your perception it would take less time in relation to the lower plane to accomplish the same action.

And here was the moment when John had thrown all eight of his tentacles in the air in utter frustration. That last sentence simply had the word _time_ mentioned a few too many times for his liking, much less to understand anything she'd just said. On the other hand, Rodney readily replied how he understood what she told them and that it had something to do, or was similar to, the theory of relativity. Something about, not only traveling faster through space, but also traveling more slowly through time. That was before he sped like a bullet, disappearing in a blink of an eye. An eye John didn't even have anymore, much less eyelids to blink with. If the notion of changing the speed of your perception was added as well as the point that the passage of time wasn't constant anymore, the sentence 'disappearing in a blink of an eye' didn't have any useful meaning whatsoever.

It took a few months, but in the end both had learned the ascended laws of motion pretty decently, as well as a ton of other things that would probably make a human brain simply explode without any prior warning. And now it was finally time to learn how to fight other ascended beings.

For that specific lesson, which had lasted the best part of the next four months, a new teacher had come into play. And John and Rodney had quickly learned that there was no messing around with _him_.

Ilium had explained to them that fighting other ascended beings in the higher plane was actually a contact sport. While ascended begins could manipulate surrounding energy in the lower plane pretty much at their will, he also explained that that same energy didn't exist in the higher plane. In fact, said energy couldn't harm an ascended being at all. In the higher plane, the only thing an ascended being could use was its own energy matrix and it could do so in only two ways. It could be used offensively - more of it used offensively would have a greater impact on the opponent - or defensively as a tougher skin of sort in order to protect your core from attacks. The problem was that you needed to decide how much of it you would use offensively and how much defensively. If you used all of your energy to defend yourself, the opponent would have a harder time doing any damage, but the remaining energy used for attacking would do very little to harm your opponent. That was of course of no concern for Ilium who in his eight million years as an ascended being had learned how to shift from offensive to defensive stand so fast that it actually looked as if both were at 100 percent at all the times.

It looked very unfair to Rodney and John since they were very far from being able to do that.

In short, an ascended being's tentacles were the offensive weapon with which they attacked their opponent, while their glowing core was the thing that needed to be protected if they wanted to survive.

John had succeeded in making his tentacles glow brighter, while consequently his core became almost a faint shadow of its former glow, and he also managed to do the opposite, but the speed at which he could switch between the two was awfully slow, even in his humble opinion. Looking at Ilium, it simply looked as if both, his core and his tentacles, simply would begin glowing more brightly, with no noticeable shifting going on whatsoever.

It was so unfair.

And now, after six months relative to the material plane of existence, John and Rodney were finally ready to face the Ori, or at least as ready as they could possibly be after only six months.

John turned from Rodney, with whom he'd been currently sparing, towards Oma when he sensed her presence behind him. "What is it?"

"It is time. The supergate is opening," Oma replied with clear urgency in her voice.

John simply looked at Rodney, then again at her, and nodded. Without any more words, the three of them sped through the higher plane. The location where the supergate was was easily visible since the supergate was located next to a black hole, so they wouldn't have trouble reaching it.

"Maybe the supergate is opening simply because they're sending more ships," John remarked. Six months ago, he would have never said that having more Ori ships was only a simple and non-important fact.

"I do not believe they would send more ships here while Liam is leading the offensive in their galaxy," Oma replied.

"Liam's in the Ori galaxy?" Rodney asked. "Since when?"

"A few days. Which means that, by now, the Ori are fully aware he's there," Oma replied.

"And it also means the Ori would never send reinforcements here while he's there doing whatever he's doing," John concluded, somberly. It simply meant there must be some other reason for the gate to open, and he knew exactly what that reason was.

Oma, John and Rodney stopped near the black hole. It was just a quick trip of no more than a few thousand light-years. Near it, John could detect the different energy signature of the supergate charging. In these six months, he'd learned how to detect and distinguish the energy signatures of different objects, and not only of large celestial bodies, translated into the higher plane. And now he was close enough to see the supergate's energy signature very easily, even with a black hole near it. Although the supergate crackling with energy was impressive, this definitely wasn't the thing that had attracted his attention. It was the millions upon millions of ascended beings waiting in front of it. He'd met a lot of ascended beings in these six months, but he'd never met more than a dozen or so of them at once.

Suddenly, Ilium appeared next to him. John looked at him intently. Determination was the only thing he was sensing from him, which was probably a good thing in terms of what was coming. John turned back as he sensed the energy of the supergate spike, the same instant as the event horizon erupted.

It took a barely measurable instant before the tide of Ori began pouring through the gate.

An endless tide, it seemed.

Ilium turned to John. "Hide."

John, without a word, disappeared into one of the many lower planes of existence, the same way as Rodney and the other million or so humans that had been recruited throughout the Milky Way or Pegasus galaxy in the last six months had just done.

* * *

Ornu exited through the supergate closely trailed by Visa. In the distance, he noticed the millions of Alterrans waiting, all in a sort of tightly packed wall formation.

"They've been waiting for us," Ornu stated, slightly surprised.

"Good. This way we won't have to chase them down around the galaxy," Visa replied with a wicked smile.

Ornu looked at Visa. It was true they wouldn't need to go chase the Alterrans around the galaxy, or even further into the emptiness of space between galaxies for that matter, but that wasn't the point he'd tried to make. The point was that the Alterrans were already here, _waiting for them!_ "Not the point I was trying to make, Visa."

"I know it wasn't, but… look at them!" Visa replied, moving one tentacle in the direction of the Alterrans. "Our forces number the same, and we are more powerful than they are. And if you look more closely, you'll see that _all of them _are keeping a purely defensive stance."

Ornu turned and looked at the wall of Alterrans. What Visa had said was true. Every last one of them was using their energy matrix in a purely defensive stance with no more than twenty percent of their energy shifted into their tentacles. Amazingly stupid if somebody asked him. This way they could use much more of _their _energy into attacks without having to worry too much about getting hurt. Still…

"Something is wrong. Say what you want, but even the Alterrans are not _that_ stupid," Ornu replied.

Visa looked at Ornu with pure disgust. Ornu was still refusing to face the reality of the Alterrans being cowards, always choosing to flee rather than fight. And now that they couldn't flee anymore, they were opting for trying to defend themselves as hard as possible. "Ornu, they are the _Alterrans_, the ones who fled our galaxy rather than face us in battle."

Visa had a good argument there, but Ornu was still wary for some reason. But he also knew there was no going back now. In order to return back home, they would need to disengage the supergate and redial, and that would mean losing their connection to their followers in the Ori galaxy. The Alterrans would note that and, even though he fully agreed that they were nothing more than cowards, even they would take such a _gift_ and act upon it. All this, meant that there was no other choice but to push forward and finally end the million year's long cold war, no matter the cost. "All right. Let's end this!"

With the word having been given, the tide of Ori pushed forward towards the wall of Alterrans and Lanteans. Individual Ori chose their prey, all of them transferring 80 percent or more of their energy into their tentacles, which were meant to be used as blades.

And then the clash happened.

Alterrans began evading the Ori attacking them, using their tentacles only in an utterly confusing manner as if they were incompetent children trying to bash at their assailers, but without conviction or strength, before bolting as if trying to escape, only to repeat the same pitiful attempts to attack all over again.

Ornu pushed near one of the Alterrans, but before he could attack it, a voice near him stopped him cold.

"You will face _me!_" Ilium thundered_._

Ornu turned and noticed a _very _large Alterran, much larger than any other present here, almost as large as he was. Worse than that, the Alterrans tentacles and core, both, glowed brilliantly with the same intensity and he could not detect any shifting of its energy whatsoever. Ornu was the most powerful Ori in existence, the first who had ascended almost seven million years ago, and he could not understand how such a powerful ascended being as the one standing in front of him could even exist, at least not without having the ability to gorge itself with energy from humans.

It didn't matter though. He could clearly sense _he_ was the stronger one here. Still, he needed to transfer more energy to his core than he thought it would be needed. A lucky hit from this Alterran could prove to be fatal if he didn't do it and, as a result, he felt anger bubble inside him. Having to take a more defensive stance against a pitiful Alterran wasn't something he liked even thinking about, much less doing. "As you wish Alterran."

Ornu dashed at Ilium at full speed slashing with his tentacles, only to hit nothing. Ilium had already moved with incredible speed and he was already striking back. Ornu barely managed to evade the hit. Apparently, this Alterran was incredibly fast. This was something Ornu hadn't expected. The level at which this Alterran could bring his Perception was frightening. No wonder he could shift his energy so quickly

Ornu, again pushed forward, in quick succession slashing with all of his eight tentacles and with one of them finally hitting the target, but his smile quickly faltered as he felt two strikes hitting his own core in return.

Both Ilium and Ornu staggered back, both hurt by the blows, but it looked like Ornu's single blow had done more damage than the two Ilium had succeeded to inflict. Still, Ornu didn't like how this was going, not in the slightest.

He thought about calling Visa so he could be certain of winning this duel, but, at that point, the Alterran in front of him simply vanished.

'_What?' _Ornu thought.

Ilium had decided that it was time. Many Alterrans, and even more Lanteans, had already fallen in their clash against their arch enemy. As he appeared in one of the lower planes of existence, he gave one simple and very short order. "ATTACK NOW!"

The million or so ascended humans vanished and immediately reappeared in the higher plane, just behind the mass of Ori. While the Ori had transferred almost 80 percent of their energy in order to slash at the elusive Alterrans, constantly bolting here and there without trying to seriously engage them, the mass of newly arrived ascended humans, with apparently complete disregard for their own life, transferred 99 percent of their energy into their tentacles, slashing at the unaware Ori with everything they had. An Ori was more powerful than an Alterran. And the difference between an Ori and an ascended human was even greater. But even such vast gap in strength didn't mean all that much when the Ori were using _only _20 percent to protect their core and when the humans were using 99 percent of their essence to inflict a massive blow. Millions of humans slashed at the unaware Ori from behind, inflicting massive damage. The wounded Ori turned in rage at their newly found attackers.

Exactly the wrong thing to do.

The currently elusive and seemingly frightened mass of Alterrans suddenly turned from sheep into angry wolfs, transferring a large portion of their essence into their tentacles, with only vengeance in mind. With blinding speed, they hurled at the distracted Ori now facing the humans with kamikaze-like mentality, slashing at the Ori with pure madness in their eyes.

It was payback time.

"Nooooo!" Ornu shrieked in anger as Ori after Ori disintegrated into nothingness. The previously believed _docile_ Alterrans, fearful for their precious existence and always more willing to flee instead of fight, had suddenly turned into bloodthirsty beasts, uncaring for their own lives. He knew that facing such enemy would in the best of outcomes be bloody for his side, but he much less liked to think of the _other_ possibility that now had suddenly become at least possible. Still, even with this blow his brethren had taken, they were slowly regrouping and they were still the stronger one, which made him feel a trace of hope. That was at least until he remembered that he was fighting somebody.

That realization was the only thing that saved him from an untimely demise, as he quickly shifted all of his energy to protect his core, just an instant before eight tentacles slashed at him from behind with indescribable ferocity.

Ilium looked at the Ori staggering after having received a massive blow. He'd predicted there was a chance the sudden shift in the battle would stun his opponent and that he would be able to use it to his advantage the instant he returned to the higher plane. He then glanced at the rest of his ascended brothers and sisters fighting the rest of the Ori. They were again changing tactics, with most of the humans focusing on a small group of Ori and, this way, trying to take on a single Ori in pairs or even three of them at a time, while the rest of the Alterrans were running interference in an attempt to prevent the confused Ori from regrouping. Sheppard had been right, Ilium admitted it to himself. Constantly changing tactics meant even more than strength did. And keeping the Ori scattered and off balance could give them the necessary edge they so desperately needed. Still, more Ori had survived their ambush than he thought they would. The Ori were simply too powerful with the humans from the Ori galaxy giving them access to their core energy. Even worse, those Ori that had been hurt, but hadn't died, were recuperating their energy faster than it should be possible without the ability to suck power from humans. He also knew he didn't have much time to think about it because he still needed to face his opponent who was also recuperating from his previous attack with blinding speed. And, as it seemed, his opponent had become a very angry Ori.

Ornu couldn't believe it. He'd been very close to being vanquished into oblivion. This was far from the fight he'd thought they would have to fight. He turned for a split moment, knowing that more than that would give his opponent the opening he needed to finish him off, to look at Visa. She was fighting two humans and an Alterran, and it definitely didn't look as if she would be available to come to his aid. And this Alterran was the sort no one would ever want to face in a one-on-one duel, not with complete certainty of winning anyway.

Anger filled Ornu. If he could postpone the fight for a little while longer, his energy would be restored from the many humans in the Ori galaxy he was sucking their core energy from, but somehow he had doubts his opponent would give him that chance. Which also meant he needed to shift even more of his energy to defend his core while trying to prolong the fight as long as possible in order to replenish his energy and maybe only attack if he saw a certain opening.

As predicted, the Alterran facing him charged with blinding speed.

And at that point, the inexplicable happened.

* * *

**Ori Galaxy – Celestis**

_These Ori followers are completely mad! There's no other explanation I can think of for such behavior._

Once he had finally reached the planet and landed near the place where he thought the Ark was buried, he'd spent more than an hour searching and trying to remember the exact location. Once epiphany had finally struck him – in the form of tripping over the stone cover leading in the catacombs underneath where the Ark was – the act of bringing the Ark to the surface was quick and uneventful. So much that he had believed, for a moment, that luck was finally turning on his side and that this task would, after all, not be as difficult as he'd previously thought it would be.

_Oh, how wrong I was._

The trek to the several miles distant city of Celestis had taken more than he thought it would for the sole reason that the Doci was literally tossing followers at him like a madman in an attempt to stop him from reaching the city. To Liam, it looked as if the Doci was simply tossing whoever came through the gate as reinforcement at him, which was also very stupid in Liam's humble opinion because sending dozens of soldiers with a single prior at a time was accomplishing nothing except slowing him down. Well, almost nothing, because the constant attacks had depleted the guardians' personal shields and two guardians had even been injured, and that did result in slowing them down.

While two Guardians were carrying the recently unearthed Ark, with two more guardians protecting it with their lives, the remaining eight Guardians, clad in crisis looking armor, and supported by Liam, were the scouting force, a force more than enough to dispatch of the small nuisance in the form of half a dozen Ori foot soldiers at a time. The occasional priors were slightly better, but it was immediately apparent the priors in this galaxy hadn't taken the needed time to become immune to the anti-prior device, capable of stripping them of all of their awesome powers, as he had witnessed many times before in the Milky Way galaxy. And this was probably the reason they were being used in a more supporting role and from a greater distance rather than in a more active fighting role. They would simply try to provide as much protection to their soldiers as they could, and that was far from being an effective employment of their abilities. Especially since one of the guardians was carrying an anti-prior rifle capable of sending an ultrasonic burst straight at the frightened prior, resulting in his complete loss of powers. The result was, their soldiers losing the protective bubble, and the prior losing his head when another of the guardians used her plasma sniper rifle to blow his head.

And the soldiers would in short order follow with the same or similar fate.

Liam had been disappointed at the tactics the priors and the Ori followers were utilizing in the Milky Way galaxy, but now that he'd witnessed the utter inexperience of those present here, he understood the true reality of the enemy they were facing. They were simply not a trained military force, not at any level near that of the Guardians or Terrans. These were simple peasants given an ineffective armor to wear and a _spear!_ to fire energy bolts. And the priors, who were supposed to lead them into battle, were _not_ trained officers who had spent years learning how to do it effectively.

_Ah well. It is better this way. For our side, at least._

Now, as they were finally entering the inner portion of the city of Celestis, after having spent hours shooting at followers and priors alike, there was just a small problem Liam still didn't know how to solve. He didn't have a clue what to do with the Ark. He had opened the damn thing a hundred times and every time the Ark had remained empty. He literally had no clue how the Ark was supposed to be used. He had even found out that pushing those big buttons on top of it made them glow for a brief moment, but it didn't change the final outcome in the slightest.

He did understand that there was probably a combination that needed to be inputted correctly, a sort of password, but for the life of him, he couldn't think of what it could possibly be. Observing the symbols on top, he understood they were old Alterran symbols, symbols from a mostly forgotten dialect from shortly before they'd left this galaxy, and the fact that there were only a dozen of them on the Ark's top cover, which wasn't even near their entire alphabet, made him think of all possible words he could form with those symbols present. And yet, there were simply too many combinations, even with only twelve symbols, to guess the correct one in any useful time. And he didn't intend to remain here for the next decade or so while trying them all.

"Ancestor, we are a corridor away from the room with the gate. If we take control of the gate, there will be no more reinforcements coming our way," one of the guardians said, the instant he'd returned from his scouting.

Liam looked at the man clad in armor, thinking of what he'd just said. Twelve hours ago, William had sent him a message notifying him the Ori warships had abruptly ended their chase and turned back towards the planet, which meant, in a little over two hours they would be here. William had then proceeded to chase _them_, harassing them and even having managed to take out several of them, but the rest had moved out of range, accelerating hard in order to quickly return to the planet. Not having hyperspace was a real problem sometimes.

Liam needed to end this very soon or things could turn very ugly. "Alright, let's take the gate out of the equation and then at least try to find a way to use this damn thing," Liam replied, looking at the Ark with disgust. What the hell was he supposed to do with it was still a mystery.

While Liam was contemplating how to solve his little conundrum, four chosen guardians were already well underway to the gateroom. As they were moving through the short corridor leading them toward their intended target, a follower exited the gateroom and immediately noticed them. With the stealth option gone down the drain, the four guardians opened fire, almost in unison, at the lonely follower, but he was fast enough to quickly flee back inside the gateroom and out of line of sight. Shouts were heard from the room in front of them.

Proceeding quickly, they reached the doors leading inside the gateroom before any more followers could reach them from the other side. Still, as they peaked inside, they noticed four followers standing in front of the gate and more standing behind it, all with their weapons ready and raised.

A storm of energy blast came soaring through the open doors.

There was something to say about the lack of different types of weapons the Ori followers lacked in their everyday engagements. For example, in such situation, the followers would have had great use of a few nice grenades, since the guardians had good cover against direct energy weapons, but not against area effect weapons. Such lack of adequate weaponry will be the cause for their quick demise, especially since the guardians were far from lacking in such field.

Two spherical objects flew in the gateroom, bouncing on the floor a few times before stopping only a few feet behind the four followers in front of the gate. As the plasma grenades exploded, blue plasma flames engulfed the center of the room, the gate and all the followers included. With the flames vanishing as quickly as they came, the guardians stepped inside the room. There was not much left of the followers' remains, which meant the gate room was theirs.

As Liam entered the gate room only minutes later, he noticed two of his guardians had been injured. Apparently, the guardians had more visitors through the gate before he'd stepped inside the room. They'd been surprised by two more followers coming through the gate, spears blazing. He looked at all the guardians that had come with him on this mission. They were all tired, their shields depleted from the constant fighting they had been doing for the last five hours, and Liam was as well feeling the strain of a prolonged engagement. Still, the gate was theirs but there could be more idiots on the other side of the gate who didn't know what warm welcome they would receive on this side of the wormhole.

"Ancestor, are we going to shoot everyone that comes through, or do you have something in mind on how to stop them from coming here?" the same guardian who had spoken before asked while gripping his injured right hand.

While stepping closer and beginning to heal the guardian's injured hand, Liam thought about what to do, especially since the gate had been opened from the other side with no way of closing it from where he was standing. The glow coming out from Liam's hand quickly restored the guardian to full health. He then proceeded to the other injured guardian and did the same to him. As he completed his task, he turned and looked at the big gate in front of him with a deep frown.

_What to do, what to do? That is the big question._

He then smiled, immediately starting to concentrate. The gate in front of him slowly rose three feet from the floor, then it slowly rotated by ninety degrees, now facing the floor with its event horizon, and then it unceremoniously slammed down into it with a thunderous crushing sound. He then turned to face the guardian who'd asked the question with a grin.

If nothing else, the guardian could not fault the result this, in his humble opinion, crude method had achieved. There would simply be no more people reforming through the wormhole since there was no space where to reform in the first place.

"All right," Liam said, thoughtfully. "The problem of reinforcements coming through the gate has been solved, but we still have the problem of not knowing what to do with that thing," Liam said, while pointing at the accursed Ark. "So, I'm going to go into deep meditation trying to remember what that thing is supposed to do and how to activate it. I really have no other idea on how to find out, and I know I have that knowledge… somewhere. While I'm meditating, I'm also going to be out of action, so your job will be to protect this room from any wandering priors or followers still in the city."

"Of course, Ancestor," the Guardian replied, quickly turning and pointing at four other Guardians. "You four. Go in the next room and shoot anyone in sight."

"Oh! And another thing," Liam said, thinking of something. "If a prior passes by, try to capture him instead of simply killing him."

The guardian looked at Liam, questioningly. "May I ask why?"

"I'm not sure, but I have the feeling we'll need a guinea pig, in case I find out how to use the Ark."

The Guardian immediately turned toward four other of his teammates, "You four. Go search for a prior and bring him here still breathing." The guardian liked more being proactive than to simply wait to see if a prior stumbles near this room.

Liam looked at the guardian with approval, before sitting on the floor, legs crossed. He then took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

Liam found himself in a seemingly endless void. He didn't know exactly for how long he had been meditating, it could have been hours or maybe less than a minute; there was simply no way to tell. Looking around, he thought about the place he found himself in. If his memory served him well, this looked remarkably similar to the higher plane. It wasn't the first time that meditation had brought him here, and it was here that he had regained some of the knowledge he'd lost after having descended. Before the incident that had resulted in him unwillingly ascending _again_ several years ago, and that had almost ended in him being unable to return to the mortal plane, he'd been unable to achieve such deep meditative state that could bring him to this place, much less being able to regain lost memories. After that incident though, he had been able to randomly retrieve at least _some _of them.

But it was far from having the ability to regain specific memories and knowledge. It had always been random. Sometimes he would come here and spend hours, only to return back among the living with the knowledge of some long forgotten culinary recipe. Very disappointing, in more ways than one, especially since he wasn't a very good cook in the first place, so, not much reason for that knowledge to clutter his brain, but it had still been out of his control to select what he wanted and what he would receive. The problem now was, that he needed very specific knowledge to resurface, which meant, he needed to go deeper.

Much deeper.

Concentrating to levels never before tried or achieved, he slowly began to feel the strain of his current task. It was like forcefully trying to fully immerse yourself into your own subconscious, a place never meant to be accessed by the conscious portion of one's mind. And yet, he had no choice. He needed to find the lost knowledge of the Ark of Truth and he needed to do it now.

In the emptiness of the place he was in, he suddenly detected a crack forming in front of him. It was a strange rapture, mostly because the place he currently occupied seemed incredibly bright, and yet, the rapture was pouring blinding light through it.

Without thinking twice, he hurled at the rapture before it could close.

He needed the knowledge on how to use the Ark. What he got instead was… _everything._

Liam woke up abruptly, screaming like a mad man, a scream that would have awoken even the dead. And blood pouring out of his nose wasn't a good sign either. Some _things_, you simply didn't do, and for a good reason too. His head felt like a million times too small for what it suddenly needed to contain.

His thoughts shattered into millions of incoherent pieces, unable to connect _any _knowledge he had received. And retrieving any, even the simplest piece of information, resulted in an endless flood overloading every neuron in his brain. He tried to focus on simple things, like breathing, but it was to no avail because his entire body, the same as his brain, was completely out of control, even his autonomous system, the one responsible for regulating involuntary actions.

And then, as it usually happens when an overload occurs, his body simply shut down. The only thing he managed to scream before falling unconscious was one single word.

"_Origin!"_

The Guardian in front of Liam went so pale that a sheet of white paper would have envied him. First, he had witnessed Liam slowly rise from the floor while still in his meditative lotus position. Weird, but, he'd witnessed stranger things in his life. Second, Liam somehow began to glow, brighter and brighter. This part was definitely too weird even for him. Third, the man went completely ethereal, with tentacles spreading out of his body! All right, this started to look completely ridiculous even to him. _Forth! _He dropped like a rock back to the ground, screaming like a lunatic, clutching his head with both hands, and with blood pouring out of his nose like a fountain! And before falling unconscious – at least he hoped he was only unconscious and not dead – he screamed the word 'Origin'.

_Origin!_ Of all freaking words in the Alterran vocabulary, Liam had chosen to scream that single word.

"What the fuck!" the Guardian exclaimed before worry overrode all other thoughts he'd had a moment ago. He rushed next to Liam, quickly using a scanner he took out of his belt. He then sighed in utter relief. Liam was still alive. But as far as he could tell, that was the only good thing the scanner was displaying.

While most of the Guardians were now leaning over Liam and checking his vitals, another Guardian remained next to the recently captured and bound Doci with a puzzled expression plastered all over his face. He then looked at the Ark, then back at the big-kahuna prior. Then back to the Ark again.

Slowly, he moved next to the Ark and started scrutinizing the accursed device nobody knew how to use. He then leaned over it and started pushing buttons.

O…R…I…G…I…N.

The Guardian then pushed the Ark with his foot, which resulted in the Ark tipping over. It fell on one of its sides, opening its cover.

The Ark's opening faced straight at the Doci, while it radiated a bright light.

The rest of the Guardians looked at him in utter puzzlement. He looked at them back, shrugging and uttering only one word, as if that single word was enough to explain everything. "Origin."

In a way, Origin had saved the people of the Ori galaxy from their oppressors who had brought Origin _to_ them. Irony simply had no boundaries.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Higher Plane**

Ilium charged at Ornu with all the speed he could muster. He was the fastest Alterran in the higher plane and he intended to use this advantage of his to the fullest. As he was about to strike at the already hurt Ori, he sensed something that made him stop abruptly. Ornu was starting to look weaker. Instead of recuperating energy by tapping into his human victims, as he'd done so far, he looked as if he was instead losing energy, and he was losing it very quickly.

Which meant only one thing.

With a massive grin, Ilium looked at his opponent. _Liam did it! Oh, this is so good! _

Ornu froze, utterly horrified. He was becoming weaker. He wasn't receiving any more energy from the humans in his galaxy, not anymore. In mere moments he would revert to his normal strength, strength that could barely match that of a Lantean, much less that of an Alterran. And much, much less the power of the Alterran he was currently facing. This was bad, and he was also sensing he wasn't the only one who'd lost his augmented power. It meant, the Alterrans could now crush them like mere bugs.

Which also left only one possible thing to do if he was to survive this day.

"I surrender!" Ornu shouted the words. In the end, he knew the Alterran were just sissies, with too many stupid rules and moral values, and ascended beings who had never, ever, appreciated the power ascension had bestowed upon them. He would surrender, suffer the consequence of such act, probably for the next couple of thousand years under the rule of the Alterrans, while in the meantime plotting to somehow regain power again, maybe even in a distant galaxy the Alterran wouldn't know about. And when he was ready again, he would strike back.

So, it came as a big surprise when Ilium's answer was, "No."

"No?" Ornu asked, puzzled. This wasn't the answer he was expecting.

"No," Ilium repeated the same word again. "Too many people have died, both ascended Alterrans and Lanteans, and humans in the lower plane, for me to allow you to escape retribution and then possibly try again in a few thousand years. You decided to attack us, _you_ decided to enslave an entire galaxy of humans, and you tried to do the same in this galaxy with the sole purpose of gaining even more power. This is the end for you Ori. There will be no second chance for you, a chance I know if given would be eventually betrayed."

Ornu didn't manage to say anything in reply before a very pissed off Alterran rushed at him with blinding speed. Ornu, in full rage, decided that if he was going to die, he would at least take someone with him. He rushed forth at the Alterran, slushing with all his strength. He mostly missed, but two tentacles managed to hit his intended target.

And he grinned viciously in utter delight at his successful attack. That was at least until he saw the expression on the Alterran's face and the same instant as he also felt his core having been pierced. A tentacle had sliced through-and-through, through his core's center.

Ilium remained standing solemnly, looking at the last moments of existence of his many million years old arch enemy. He then sliced upward with the already imbedded tentacle, cutting the Ori almost in half. The subsequent two quick slashes shattered Ornu's energy matrix, ending his life.

Visa didn't like what was currently going on. When Ornu had warned them that there could be some superweapon on Celestis, she hadn't believed it, but she knew she could use that to steer the others into finally taking action against the Alterrans instead of endlessly waiting for them to gather enough followers in the Milky Way galaxy. Frankly, she was of the opinion that - looking at how things were currently going in this wretched galaxy - they would never bring enough of them under their thumb to matter. And the idea of a confrontation with the Alterrans at this point also appealed to her since she knew many more Ori would die as well, which was something she very much wanted. She'd had no doubt they would eventually win, they were the stronger ones after all, but if a lot of Ori did die too, except her of course, she would afterwards reap the power of those who'd died. There would simply be less of them to share power and she would have become even more powerful than she'd ever been before.

But now, things looked differently. She was surrounded by two humans and an Alterran, and although they didn't have physical facial expressions, or faces at all, she could have sworn they looked like a pack of starving hyenas, grinning at her. She turned briefly, only to witness Ornu shattering into nothingness at the hand of another Alterran.

At that moment, she realized this was the end for the Ori… and for her.

John, Rodney and Oma did indeed look like a bunch of drooling hyenas; hyenas finally allowed to strike freely at their prey. And they weren't about to miss that opportunity. Exchanging a simple nod, the three of them charged as one at the surrounded Ori, slashing viciously. Blow after blow they took pieces of the Ori's energy matrix, continuing to do so until she finally shattered completely.

John looked at Rodney with a massive grin. This was a victory they would remember forever… or maybe not, depending on what they would be allowed to retain when they returned to the mortal realm as it had been promised to them they would be. He then looked around, seeing Ori after Ori being chased and cut down everywhere around him. Only few were still alive, too few to matter.

"I must admit, there was a moment when I wasn't that sure we would win," John said.

"And I must admit that Liam has an impeccable sense of timing," Oma replied.

Rodney as well turned to look around, but he was looking at something else, "How many did we lose?"

Oma sighed, "Too many. I won't be certain until we regroup, but it looks at least half a million have perished on our side."

"Wars tend to have that downside. Even a victory is never a _complete _victory," John replied, somberly.

"And that is the reason why we always try to prevent a war," Oma said, sadly. "In a war, even when you win, you also and always lose something, which is why now it is time for the two of you to return to the lower plane and help end the other wars you're fighting. The Milky Way galaxy needs to end the eons of long oppression and wars. The human race desperately needs a prolonged period of peace in order to heal its wounds and to progress."

John agreed with Oma, but he was sensing something else Oma wasn't telling him, "Something wrong?"

Oma looked at John, uncertain if she should answer his question. "The stargate is a great device, but it has also brought a lot of grief, the same as other technologies that have allowed a young race, such as humans are, to travel the stars while still not, let's say, wise enough to understand all the possible repercussions," Oma immediately noticed the frown John had put up. "This is not a critique directed at the people of Earth. You have proved yourself, and if I'm not mistaken, Liam plans to _change_ your race as well to become a race, even on a genetic level, as advanced as the Lanteans were. I'm more worried about the rest of the galaxy though."

"I don't understand."

"At this point, too many human worlds have technologies that they didn't develop themselves or fully understand for that matter. In a way, the act of developing a certain technology also proves you are advanced enough as a society to understand the possible consequences of using that same technology, or at least close enough." Oma still wasn't sure if John understood. It looked as if he was going in that direction, but Oma still needed a little more explanation to do. "Let me ask you a question. Would you ever give a nuclear bomb with a big red button on top of it to a cave man?"

"Of course not," John replied.

"Why not?" Oma asked, smiling.

"Because, sooner or later, they would push the damn red button. But that's not the same as giving them stargates or hyperdrives."

"Why?"

John was ready to reply that those technologies can't go boom like a nuclear bomb, but that wasn't entirely true. Used in a different way than the intended one, they could wreck devastation on a scale much greater than that of a nuclear bomb. Not to mention that in order to use a hyperdrive you also needed to have a powerful power source that could certainly be used in such a way. "Because their primary function is to allow people to travel through space, and not for destruction."

"That's true," Oma said, also having noticed the way he'd phrased his answer. "But do you believe that every world inhabited by the human race are advanced enough to have developed tolerance towards other races when traveling through space. And I'm not only thinking about other human races. I was very pleased when you first met the Asgard and the Nox and managed to achieve a high level of understanding and tolerance between your racial differences, and eventually even became allies, but can you with certainty say that all humans in the Milky Way galaxy would be able to display the same tolerance and understanding? Or that they would even want to for that matter?"

"All right, I get it. In general the smart thing to do is let people progress on their own time, and when they alone succeed in developing a certain technology, it is also a sort of proof they are wise enough to use it, but where are you going with this?"

"What you just said is exactly what I meant. And for the part where I'm going with this, I would personally prefer for races in the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies to develop on their own time, no matter how long it takes, and without outside help. Your station, Babylon One, is an example of how things _shouldn't_ be done. That station allows the sharing of technology among races that are far from the stage at which they should even have access to such knowledge and especially access to devices they don't understand or are not capable of producing on their own. In a way, what has happened to the race the Tollans gave their generators, is the most dramatic example of what spreading advanced technology to races not ready for it can lead to. I could also mention the little problem the Genii are having with their little deal."

Sheppard thought about the Genii and the misfortune the deal that landed them the blueprints for a spaceship had caused them. The aliens had been true to their word. They had given the Genii a single ship and the blueprints to build more in exchange for a planet, but what the Genii hadn't realized was that in order to build those ships and their components, they needed the right tools. Tools they didn't have. Even worse, the Genii didn't even have the tools that would build the tools that would finally build the tools capable of building the needed components for their new ships. And the alien race that sold them the blueprints wasn't about to explain how to build those tools either. They were prepared to sell them the tools, that was true enough, but not give them the knowledge necessary to build them on their own. In short, the Genii had been royally screwed, and now they needed to pay a very steep price the aliens were asking for, for each tool they would need. Their ignorance had allowed their exploitation, and there was nothing anyone could do. Not that anyone wanted to do it either. There were very few races that barely tolerated the Genii, the Terrans included, much less those who would help them advance faster.

Before he could say anything, Oma continued. "Those races need to develop their own technology, on their own time, and not _buy_ it from somebody else. Besides, the current population on worlds in the Pegasus galaxy and by the most part in the Milky Way too is so small that there's no practical need for any of those races to have the capability to travel and colonize other worlds, is it?

"I'm afraid it is already too late to stop the spreading of advanced technologies in the Milky Way, but I think it could still be stopped in the Pegasus galaxy at least. Once all enemies have been vanquished there, the races in the Pegasus galaxy can be left to progress on their own time while you watch over them if some other threat resurfaces. Not to mention that less advanced races could easily be robbed blind. A very young race could give rights to mine their planet for precious materials like Naquadah or Trinium because, at their stage, they don't have any purpose for it, in exchange for trinkets. They don't understand that in a few hundred years the lack of those materials could greatly hamper their development," Oma said with a wicked smile plastered all over her face. She was definitely going somewhere with this. "And that's exactly what is happening on Edora, isn't it? Aren't the Terrans mining large quantities of Naquadah on that world?"

"We do, but we are helping the people on Edora in return. Their living standard is rising at a fast pace and we are teaching them new things."

"That's true, you're uplifting them. But what will happen to the Edorans when you deplete all the Naquadah on their planet and when they reach the level when they could actually use that material? Are you telling me that you will stick with the Edorans for the next few hundreds or maybe even thousands of years and that when the time comes, your world will give the Naquadah back? Or will your world _sell _Naquadah back to them at a price?"

That was something John had never thought about. He didn't know what the exact situation was going to be in a thousand years, much less if they would still have contacts with the Edorans. And he also had to admit that, while the Edorans now didn't care about a material like Naquadah, because they currently had no use for it, that would eventually change, and it was possible and even probable that when they reached that point of development, his people would have excavated all the Naquadah on the planet, leaving the Edorans with the need to buy it from them or from somebody else. He suddenly understood that maybe what they were now doing to the Edorans was actually nothing else than pure exploitation, exploitation of a race that currently didn't understand the real value of a material like Naquadah. They could eventually deplete a natural resource of a race that would most certainly benefit from it in the distant future. And he also had to admit that the current technology the Terrans possessed was more than advanced enough for them to start mining asteroids in some uninhabited system. Sure, it would be more difficult than mining on a planet with a breathable atmosphere, but it was doable.

And the reality was that many races in the Milky Way galaxy already had technologies given to them by the Jaffa or by _them_. They were currently giving hyper-capabilities to the Quirilians, which, by the looks of it, were becoming one of the most aggressive races in the entire galaxy; at least if their military buildup was any indication. The good part was that their anger was directed at the Ori, _at the moment_, but would they calm down when the Ori were gone, or would they continuing building up their military might and maybe find some _other _target? Would they find their place in time of peace? And were the Terrans responsible if the Quirilians were to begin hostilities with another race in their galaxy?

The Pegasus galaxy wasn't any better either, John knew it well enough. Even the technology transfer happening on Babylon One was mostly of the military sort, buying and selling mostly tech that could be used as weapons in one way or another, even if it weren't the tech's intended purpose. And the worst part was the way the human races were behaving towards other, nonhuman, races. Most of them didn't understand that aliens may think in a different way. They weren't very tolerant, that was for sure.

Sheppard was lost in his thoughts, thinking of the distant future, when he remembered something else. "I'm not going to remember any of this, am I?"

"No," Oma said, smiling. "And I think it is time for the two of you to go back to the lower plane."

"What's the rush?" Rodney asked.

"You need to deliver a… um… _sign_," Oma said.

"Sign? What sign? And to whom?" John asked, "Ah, forget it! Won't remember anything you say anyway."

Oma smiled. "Thanks for the help. I hope we will see each other again, even if you won't remember any of this."

* * *

_**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**_


	28. The Ascended War III

_**Author's note: **__And here finally comes the last chapter of the Ascended War. Well, without further ado…_

_**Reviews:**_

_**Sarkosianlifeform: **__True, true. It would be a good thing for the Terrans to solve the Leptinian threat first, and possibly hope the Wraith will target the Aschen, but the sudden disappearance of a strong player like the Ori were will be big news for everyone concerned. But that's for future chapters and not this one, so I'll shut up about it._

_I think I got something when the Pegasus galaxy and the Vanir are concerned. I'm writing it now._

_The idea behind the ascended war __**was**__ to write about something different, a way to break the monotony of the various fights in the lower plane with something different. I also think that it was time for the ascended Alterrans to show some spine. No one sane would leave the Ori alive, risking a repeat somewhere in the distant future. Not after what they've done._

_Unfortunately, the ascended rules still stand and no one who has been helped ascend can retain any memories of the experience. Or almost nothing ;) There's no exact rule about... uhm sensations or feelings._

_**Awesome275:**__ That, I think, is a topic of great controversy. While it is not clear what happened when Oma fought Anubis, or when Morgana fought Adria, in my opinion, I still think they can be killed. I think that because the Ori in the show were planning to convert enough people in the Milky Way galaxy to be powerful enough to take out the Alterrans. This is what Orlin said when he descended as a child and when he explained how victory for the Alterrans, even without the Ori sapping energy from human in MW, wasn't assured. Now, I can't be sure but, if ascended beings can't be destroyed or killed, what else could they do to win. I mean, to lock into an eternal battle with no winner doesn't sound like a solution._

_**Oddliver:**__ Well, that confirms my suspicion that it is better to not post on Fridays and Saturdays. _

_**Drewc4000:**__ Ok, missing a few words here and there in your review, but I think I got the meaning. Or most of it anyway. If you refer to Ilium giving a long speech, then maybe yes, but I didn't want it because he would certainly say something the ascended Alterrans know – it would definitely come out – and I didn't want to spoil the revelations in the next chapter._

_**Ryaaaaann:**__ Well, they do seem to have the squid motive done. In a way, the way they depicted the ascended beings in the show is very similar to the drones they've created as a weapon… in a way at least._

_**Chronus1326: **__From many months I was planning to write about the Terrans not being so perfect and the possibility that they make mistakes too, but only this chapter has given me the needed opportunity for someone to tell them that, like Oma did, without her going directly to them. It will have repercussions too. Thanks for the compliment by the way. It was a chapter that took some thinking and the opportunity to break the monotony of the many fights in the lower plane._

_**EvilTheLast:**__ two signs indeed. Two naked ones. Well, the battle had to be different since it happened in a completely different medium. Had to think of something new, and not… earthlike._

_**Whiteboy11475:**__ The method used to give humans the ATA activation gene is through a retrovirus, which rewrites (or gives, not sure) that specific gene. In the process the protein marker interferes with the retrovirus. Once the simulation gives Liam the desired DNA pattern, he doesn't intend to use a retrovirus, but instead the machine that almost ascended Rodney on a per case basis. Since the machine uses what looks like an energy field to achieve that, the protein marker won't interfere or block the change._

_I hope you read more chapters by now, and reached this one. So, by now, you know where the China entire ordeal has landed. Still, to answer your question, the Terrans do not have the authority to tell or the right to impose the Chinese anything. They are a sovereign country and the Terrans can't order them to simply leave the planet they were born to. The same is for joining them. If they don't want to do it, it is in their full right. No matter how awkward it can be or how many problems it can cause._

_**Tamed Scoundrel:**__ You need to have more faith in Oma. The problem with our memories is that they are all related, and not like a hard drive with files where you can erase one without affecting the others. She needs to erase any knowledge of the higher plane from their memories, that's the rule. Now, can you imagine having certain knowledge, but without knowing the circumstances where you learned it? Who was there? Or how did the place look like? You'd have holes in your memories, which makes them… sort of disconnected and difficult to access. Instead, let say that Oma rather left Sheppard a sensation or feeling instead of entire memories._

_**Dtew: **Uhm... c__are to explain?_

**Thanks to my beta, and hope you'll enjoy this chapter too.**

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania**

Jack was striding through the corridors on his way to the conference room where the rest of the council was already waiting. It had been less than twelve hours since he had _somehow_ convinced the council that they needed to prepare for a possible strike at Adria and the Ori forces in the Milky Way galaxy - something he'd been able to achieve without the use of words like 'sign' or 'hunch', or any other word that would result in him having been beamed straight in the medical wing for further evaluation and maybe even a straitjacket, just as Sam had suggested could happen – when the _sign_ in the form of two very naked Terrans appeared in his office. Of course, the two Terrans in question didn't have a clue how they'd gotten there, and much less why they were completely naked – although John did start talking about how it would be a good thing for them to stop mining planets like Edora or Pangara, with no clue why – but their appearance was enough for Jack to know what needed to be done. He had barely managed to start planning their possible strike at the planets currently under Ori control, and now it was already time to act.

Entering the conference room, he noticed the faces of the other council members turning towards him. Without a word he proceeded to his usual seat around the table.

"All right. Twenty minutes ago I got two very confused and very naked people dropped in my office, and I think the sudden appearance of McKay and Sheppard is a sign that something big has happened in the higher plane. At least if the reason Liam gave for why they were helped ascend has any merit to it. And I wouldn't be the least surprised if we were to soon start receiving reports of more people popping up all over _our_ and other worlds."

"John and Sheppard are back?" Daniel asked.

"Keep up Daniel. Yes, they are back, but we don't have time for that right now. If I'm right, and I really think I am, the Ori are gone for good, which means Adria and her followers are now left to their own devices, without any reinforcements coming from their galaxy. At least that is if Liam has succeeded in finding that Ark he'd mentioned before leaving and used it against them. There's also a chance their followers, and possibly even Adria, are now panicking, and we all know how bad that can be, especially with them controlling several worlds with large populations and their gates rigged to blow up," Jack explained at length.

Daniel thought about it, understanding why Jack was rushing their response so much. "So, you think we need to strike now?" Daniel asked, receiving a vigorous nod from Jack. "But what if we're wrong? What if the Ori haven't been defeated?"

"The way I see it, we at least need to go check it out. If the Ori are gone, we will notice it very quickly, I think. I don't think their followers will continue with business-as-usual if that's the case."

"I agree with you Jack, but were you able to prepare a force strong enough in – _what?_ – less than twelve hours?" Sam asked.

"Ships are not a problem; I have two task forces on standby. Troops on the other hand, _are_ a problem. I need to ask Anderson, but I don't think he's had time to prepare enough troops. Maybe he was able to prepare a brigade, but not more than that, which means we are short on soldiers. Still, I think the first thing we need to do is to send ships just to check it out, and in the meantime see what Anderson can come up with and send after them with a few transport ships."

"I don't like it Jack. This is going to be a very rushed operation," Klaus stated. "Where did you plan to go first?"

"The Rand Protectorate and Tagrea, but in terms of ground forces, mostly the Rand Protectorate."

"Why mostly the Rand?" Klaus asked.

"There's a chance the Rand Protectorate doesn't have a gate rigged to blow since they worked _with _the Ori willingly, in which case we should be able to safely land troops. I'm also afraid that if the ascended Ori are gone, their followers could decide to leave the planet."

"Er, Jack. That would be a good thing, wouldn't it?" Daniel asked.

"In Tagrea's case, yes, but not when the Rand Protectorate is concerned. The Ori have uplifted the Rand Protectorate, we know that, and the only reason they haven't invaded the Caledonian Federation is because the Ori didn't want them to. The Ori knew we would intervene if that happened, and that was the last thing they wanted. But if the Ori are now gone…" Jack said, trailing off and leaving the others to fill the end.

"Then the Rand will strike at their enemy without thinking twice," Daniel ended the sentence.

"Exactly," Jack confirmed. "Are we then in agreement that we need to act immediately."

The rest of the council, after only a moment of thought, nodded in agreement.

Jack left the room the next moment.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aboard the Enterprise**

The fast Terran battleship, leading the rest of Task Force 1.03, sailed through hyperspace at max sustainable velocity. A burst of energy surging through the hyper generator forced the dimension know as hyperspace to form a rapture in front of the ship, the rapture simply known as a hyper window. The ship exited hyperspace, the stress of translating into n-space forced the ship to bleed the .6c velocity, hyperspace relative, it had achieved during its voyage, leaving the ship moving at no more than a few kilometers per second.

Powerful subspace sensors, as well as radars and lidars limited to the speed at which light travels, powered up and began scanning the surrounding space.

"Sensors are not detecting any ship in the system, ma'am," the tactical officer notified her CO.

Amy Donovan could see the same thing on the small holographic display on her left armchair. A week ago, a stealth frigate had passed in the system and had detected one Ori warship in orbit, the same as any previous time she had visited the system, but now there was no trace of any Ori presence in orbit. The Enterprise, the same as the rest of Task Force 1.03, was at full readiness, with shields and weapons having already been brought online and crew members already manning their designated posts.

"Helm, set course for the planet's orbit, exactly above the Caledonian Federation," the captain order.

"Aye-aye, ma'am. Setting course for stationary orbit above the capital of the Caledonian Federation," the lieutenant manning the helm replied.

"Tactical, scan the surface of the planet. Let's see what the situation on the surface is."

It took a few minutes for the ship to reach stationary orbit and for the tactical officer to collect enough data so she could reply to her captain, "Ma'am, I'm detecting residual radiation on the planet's surface, and there are several nuclear detonation sites of which most are in the Caledonian Federation. It seems as if the Rand Protectorate was able to stop most of the Caledonian long range missiles."

Amy wasn't surprised at the ratio of missiles that had reached the Rand Protectorate and Caledonia. With the Rand Protectorate having been uplifted by the Ori, she was surprised any missile at all had been able to reach it, but she had hoped they would be fast enough to reach them before it had even happened. Apparently, they hadn't been. "Is there any fighting going on on the planet?"

"Not at the moment, ma'am, but I'm detecting three large Rand ground forces moving toward the Caledonian border. They will reach it in less than an hour, ma'am," the tactical officer replied.

Amy turned toward the communication officer. "Comm., how long for the transport ships to reach us?"

"From the last update they sent us, it will take them a little over two hours, ma'am," the comm. officer replied.

Amy didn't like the time table. The Rand invasion force would reach the Caledonian border in less than an hour, which meant they were going to engage them before Terran troops were here to land a hand. And in an hour, the fight will be well underway, which also meant their deployment on the ground would be under fire or they would need to drop troops behind the front line. And both options weren't something Amy particularly liked. At that moment, she really wanted for the change to the Navy way of doing things to already having taken full effect, in which case, aboard her ship, there would be a flag officer, an admiral or at least a rear admiral, giving the orders to the task force. But instead of being just the captain of _her_ ship alone, she was in charge of the entire task force.

"Try to contact the Caledonians. There must be somebody down there still alive and giving orders," Amy ordered.

It took several attempts, but in the end the Caledonian president answered. Apparently, she'd been deep underground in the presidential bunker when the nuclear strike had happened.

"Who is this?" the president asked over the voice-only comm. channel.

"Madam President, I'm Captain Amy Donovan, the person in charge of the Terran task force currently above your capital. Can you tell us what happened and what's your current status?"

There was a slight pause before the answer came. "Two hours ago, the Rand Protectorate launched an all-out offensive, launching nuclear missiles and mobilizing their ground forces. From intel we've gathered the Ori had left the planet shortly before that happened. We retaliated as soon as we detected their launch, but our countermeasures were woefully inadequate and only capable of stopping a few of their missiles. We don't know how successful _our_ missiles were, because after their missiles detonated we lost most of our communication capabilities, but if their missiles were able to penetrate our ballistic shield, I fear their shields must also have been much better at stopping our missiles."

"I'm afraid that's true, Madam President. Only two of your missiles were able to reach their intended target inside the Rand Protectorate, and from what I can tell, they hit only secondary military installations."

"Yes, I was afraid of that," the President's reply came. "Is there any chance you can stop their invasion. We know they will shortly reach our border with their ground forces."

_And this is the reason why an admiral should be in charge of a task force. _

Such decisions were simply above her pay grade. The Terrans didn't have any defense treaty with the Caledonian Federation, which meant she shouldn't take any actions against the Rand Protectorate, and she definitely wasn't high enough in the food chain to make new treaties. In a little over two hours, there would be at least an Army general here who has enough authority to decide what to do, but by then, she knew it would be too late.

"Madam President, I will contact the Rand Protectorate and inform them the Caledonian Federation is as of this moment under the protection of the Terrans and order them to stop all military actions against you. If they do not comply, I _will _do whatever it is in my power to stop them."

"Thank you captain Donovan, thank you. The Caledonian Federation owes you a debt of gratitude."

The conversation ended, after which Amy contacted the Rand Protectorate. She had to admit, the conversation with the president of the Rand Protectorate was very brief and very… rude. Apparently, they are under the impression that, now that they have received technologies from the Ori, they are strong enough so that nobody can oppose them, at least not on their planet.

_Which is something they will soon find out how wrong they are._

"Tactical, what can you tell me about the approaching Rand forces?"

"I'm detecting three separate forces of approximately division strength each. From the energy signature I'm detecting, those forces are protected by strong Ori shields. I would say these mobile shields are the same we faced when we fought the Ori on Quiril."

"So that's why they're so confident," Amy stated. The mobile shields the Ori had employed on Quiril weren't as strong as those protecting their fixed cannons, but a lot of firepower would still be needed in order to collapse them.

"Probably, ma'am. From what I was able to ascertain from the sensor readings, this is their biggest, if not the only, improvement, but I can't be certain from only sensor readings. Their infantry and armored units don't look any different from what we know they had before the Ori came."

There apparently hadn't been that much time for them to upgrade everything they had, which meant the shield was the only thing that would give them an advantage over the Caledonians.

Which was of course more than enough against the Caledonians, but far from enough against _them._

"Ma'am, if we use our plasma beams on continuous fire, we should be able to penetrate their shields, but I'm worried about possible collateral damage," the tactical officer replied.

Amy knew her tactical officer was right. When the shield is struck with a powerful weapon, the energy is released on the surrounding area for as long as the shield isn't pierced, which meant that, if they poured kilotons of energy per second, the surrounding area would quickly turn into cinder. But she was already ahead of her tactical officer. "I think we should rather try to circumvent their shields entirely rather than use brute force to collapse them. And I think this is the perfect opportunity to test our new penetrator missiles."

The tactical officer turned, with a massive grin, "I couldn't agree more, ma'am."

"Good. Activate the Fleet's battle net and spread the load throughout the task force. I want a tightly packed pattern, ten kilometers ahead of the approaching forces."

"Yes ma'am," the tactical officer replied, immediately going to work. She quickly devised the attack plan, and spread it through the rest of the fleet. The active battle net would allow her to command all ships' weapons from her console in order to perform a perfectly synchronized attack, with no chance of multiple ships targeting the same location.

Task Force 103, comprised of the Enterprise and six more 304s moved in unison to their designated positions, rolling ships in order to bring their missile tubes to face the planet. As all ship finished their maneuvers, sixty penetrator missiles streaked from the Terran ships, accelerating hard toward the planet.

Such launch was repeated two more times.

Half way through the atmosphere the missiles simply disengaged their engines, continuing their voyage purely on inertia and the planet's gravitational pull.

Seconds later, the slick missiles hit the ground in a perfect line ten miles in front of the approaching leading force and burrowing deep into the ground. The subsequent missiles did the same in front of the two other approaching forces only minutes later. They would lie there, waiting.

During the long struggle against the Ori, the Terrans had come to the conclusion that striking directly at an Ori shield wasn't the best possible approach. Instead, they understood that every emplacement with a protective bubble to protect it had a massive weakness.

They were never protected from bellow.

Unaware of the little surprise the Terrans had prepared, the Rand forces proceeded on their way to the Caledonian border thinking the Ori's shields were more than capable of protecting them from any orbital strike, even from the Terrans.

When they reached the place where the missiles had buried themselves deep, the signal from the Enterprise was sent.

Massive underground explosions, perfectly timed to form a moving wave, blasted one after the other. The ground beneath the front of the Rand force turned into an almost living beast, shifting as if a tectonic plate had suddenly moved. The explosions, first threw the earth, and everything on it, in the air, only for it all to fall back down into a newly formed massive depression.

The deep underground nuclear detonations created a sort of artificial fault line spreading for tens of miles in both directions perpendicular to the approaching force, and with a good third of the Rand's forces having been caught in it. The result was devastating for the invasion force, not only because of the almost complete destruction of a third of their forces, but because it would take them days to get those that have survived and were now inside the massive depression into the ground out, but also because they would need to go around the newly created fault line if they intended to continue with their planned invasion of the Caledonian Federation. And it would take only two more hours for Terran reinforcements to arrive.

"I think we've achieved our goal," Amy said with a grin. She hadn't been certain the new penetrators would do exactly what the minds behind their creation assured the military they would, but now that she'd seen the result, there was no doubt about their usefulness. She too was of the opinion that, with the Ori having powerful shields and all, the ability to strike at them without the need to pour massive amounts of energy in the form of concentrated plasma or the use of thousands of Alterran drones in order to try and bypass the shields, was no doubt advantageous. "Let's give them ten more minutes for the news of what has happened to their forces to reach those in charge before we contact them again. Maybe then, they'll be more open to discussion, especially now that they know we have the ability to bypass their shields, even those protecting their capital city."

Of course, Amy would never use the same tactic on a civilian target, but that was something those in charge in the Rand Protectorate's capital didn't know.

Minutes slowly trickled by while awaiting the ten minutes deadline, but even before the ten minutes Amy had intended to give President Nadal to learn about the untimely defeat of his forces, the same comm. channel they'd used the first time to contact him, chirped.

Amy thought Nadal would be pissed, which was understandable under the circumstances, but she far from expected such a… colorful answer. She could actually picture the red face and the foam forming on his mouth while he spoke.

She waited, patiently, knowing that the president's monolog would eventually end. It always does.

"Mister President, I warned you what would happen if you didn't stop your invasion forces, but since you thought the Ori shields would protect them, and _you_, against an orbital strike - foolishly I might add - you quickly discarded us as a possible threat. And this is the direct consequence of you not heeding my warning. I told you the Caledonian Federation is under the protection of the Terrans. What did you think was going to happen? Did you believe that we the Terrans would have allowed you to _invade_ them after you _nuked_ them without warning?" Amy finally replied, ending the sentence with a mix of disgust and anger.

"_You bitch!_ You have no right to interfere in matters of our world! Leave, now!" Nadal's answer came back through the audio only channel.

Amy thought about performing a possible surgical strike on the bunker from where she knew the signal was coming from. In Amy's humble opinion, this man was completely _mad_. No one sane would call the person holding a very big gun to his head _a bitch_. That is, if he didn't have a death wish.

"Mister President, the president of the Caledonian Federation has asked us for protection against an invading force, protection which I have granted and which I have informed you of. Therefore, we have all the right to be here and act in defense of a nation which is _under our protection. _And I'm asking you one more time to stand down your forces if you wish to prevent any more bloodshed on _your_ side. And you should also take into account that _the bitch_ could at this point be asking for your unconditional surrender instead of a simple cessation of hostilities. If I were you, Mister President, I would be very careful on how I answer next!"

Instead of an answer, the connection terminated without a single word.

Minutes again passed by in utter silence. Everybody on the bridge knew what their captain's ultimatum meant if the Rand Protectorate didn't comply with her orders. They would continue to hammer on them until their president changed his mind, and everybody knew what the death toll would inevitably be as a result, especially since everybody on the bridge shared the same estimate as their captain of how sane their president was.

"Ma'am, I'm detecting aerial units taking off from the Rand Protectorate. Their current vector puts them on a straight course towards the Caledonian Federation."

As Amy heard those words, she rolled her eyes and almost threw both hands in the air. She didn't though. She still needed to keep some form of professionalism. "That's it. That man is a complete idiot. Tactical, go fleet-wide. All ships are to scramble their fighters. They are to proceed on a least time intercept course with the Rand's aerial units and engage them immediately."

"Yes ma'am," the tactical officer replied, while already working her magic on her console.

"What can you tell me about those units, lieutenant?"

"There are two different types, ma'am. Seven units are larger and I believe they are bombers, approximately the size of a B-52. Each of them has an escort comprised of eight fighters. I'm also detecting weak radiation coming from inside the larger units; probably nuclear payload, ma'am. Designating larger units as bogey Alpha 1 through 7 and smaller units as bogey Bravo 1 through 56."

"Good. Will we be able to engage them before they cross into Caledonian space?"

"No, ma'am."

"Then set priority to Alpha bogeys."

"Yes, ma'am. Setting priority targets to bogey Alpha One through Alpha Seven."

Minutes later, eight squadrons of F-302 exited from the hangar bays of the capital ships, going straight for the planet's atmosphere and their designated targets.

"Er, ma'am, the Rand's aerial units are changing vector," the tactical officer said.

"Changing towards where?"

"I'm not certain, yet, but would say towards back home."

Amy raised an eyebrow, but before she could ask more questions, the comm. officer notified her of an impending connection from the Rand Protectorate.

"President Nadal, I hope you have reconsidered your recent actions," Amy said through the open channel.

"My name is Goran Pernaux, and I'm currently the acting president of the Rand Protectorate. The… _late_ President Nadal is not in charge anymore."

Amy's frown deepened, thinking about the 'late' part of the sentence. Apparently this man didn't share his boss' idea of what they needed to do, which had apparently resulted in a very quick change in leadership. "President Pernaux, from the sudden change in course of you aerial units, am I correct in assuming you intend to stop hostilities against the Caledonian Federation?"

After a short moment the simple, "You assume correctly," reply came.

"I'm really glad to hear that, Mister President," Amy answered, also relieved. "Am I also correct in assuming that, after your rescue operations are concluded, your ground forces will retreat to a safe distance of at least fifty kilometers from the Caledonian border?"

"They will. Although, I've been informed it will take at least a few days to… unearth any survivors."

"I'm aware of that fact, and I can assure you no more actions will be taken against them during that time."

"Thank you, I appreciate that. I'm afraid I will have to cut this conversation short, and I apologize for that, but I'm needed elsewhere."

"Of course, Mister President. I understand completely," Amy said, knowing that the man now needed to work on consolidating his power if he didn't want for somebody else to get some strange ideas.

The connection ended, and Amy was relieved this entire ordeal had finally ended. Or at least it ended the part where she was directly involved. If the cease fire was to hold, her job would from now on be only to monitor the situation and to wait for the rest of the Terrans forces to reach them, probably followed by diplomats shortly after. She still didn't know how the people in charge will react to the decisions she had to make today, but she hoped she'd done the right thing by ordering the strike.

Amy ordered half the fighters to return to their ships in orbit while ordering for the rest to stay and patrol the border between the two nations. She then proceeded to inform the Caledonian President of what has transpired in the last half hour. The President was audibly relieved, at least that was what she'd deduced from the president's tone of voice over the comm. channel.

Having completed that last task, Amy slumped deeper in her comfortable captain's chair, with a sigh of relief, wondering how the situation on Tagrea was progressing.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aboard Adria's ship**

Adria watched the emptiness of space through the window in her room. This wasn't how things were supposed to have gone. And it had all happened so quickly, without any warning whatsoever, that there was nothing she could have done to prevent it. She turned for a moment, looking at the two dead priors in her room, before turning back to stare through the window once more. The supergate must have been open when that strange signal spread through the prior's orbs and her collar, that was the only logical conclusion she could come up with for what happened. There was simply no other way the signal could have spread in both the Milky Way and her home galaxy, and she knew the same thing must have happened back home because she had tried to contact them through the gate on board her ship with no avail. Her ship didn't have the necessary power to establish a connection. For that the ascended Ori would need to provide power from the other end, which possibly, and probably, meant her brothers and sister in the higher plane were gone now. And there was the possibility she was the only surviving Ori in the entire universe.

Definitely not a happy thought. _Definitely not!_

As the signal had spread from her collar, she'd felt the change in her thought patterns, but for her the changes had been small compared to how it affected the priors since she'd already known the truth. Most of it at least. But for her followers and the priors, the change was drastic. From devoted followers, they suddenly turned against the Ori in an instant. And they turned against _her_ as well_._

She'd had to kill most of them when they'd turned against her, with only a few dozen followers having been only incapacitated rather than outright killed. She could brainwash them again, but it would take time, a lot of time, but even if she were to do so, she could brainwash only a few of them, and that wasn't going to be enough.

Far from it.

As Adria was slowly coming to the sad conclusion that she was completely screwed, the situation went from bad to worse when she sensed somebody standing behind her. She knew it could not possibly be anyone from the ship, and the sudden appearance, without having heard the door opening, also suggested that whoever entered her room, did so in a very _unconventional_ manner. The truth dawned on her, the truth that the only possibility was that the person had to be an ascended being, and the suspicion that the Ori were all defunct now, it meant the person, now standing behind her, must unequivocally be an Alterran or Lantean.

Adria sighed, shrugging her shoulders in resignation, before slowly turning to face the person that had appeared in her room. The woman was simply standing there, only meters from her, intently scrutinizing her with a thin smile of complacency plastered on her face. Well, she would be complacent too if the roles were reversed, and she would probably be grinning widely rather than simply smiling. So, she couldn't fault her for smiling.

"So, you won," Adria said.

"We did," Morgana replied, continuing to smile.

"Do you mind explaining how you did it?"

"No, I don't mind," Morgana replied. "The short version is that the Ori came through the supergate and a battle ensued. The Ori were winning, they were receiving too much energy from the followers in the Ori galaxy, and we could not counter such advantage, no matter how much we tried."

"I gather that's the point when that strange signal propagated through both galaxies and brainwashed our followers?"

"That's right. After that, it was pretty easy to end the battle in our favor."

"Care to explain what was that signal?"

"Before we came to this galaxy, we developed a device we have named The Ark of Truth. It simply shows if what someone believes is the truth or not. So, it wasn't exactly brainwashing."

"I see. And why haven't you used it before?"

"The device hadn't been used ten million years ago because even then the Alterrans believed in freedom more than how much we wanted to win the war against your kind. They thought that people should be free to believe whatever they want to believe, no matter if it is the truth or not. Most people don't know the truth anyway."

"And now you've changed your mind?"

"No, we didn't."

"But you still used it?"

"We ascended Alterrans didn't, but somebody else did."

It didn't take long for Adria to figure out who that somebody she was talking about was. "The Alterran who descended. He used it."

"He did. He's… more pragmatic than we are. He was of the opinion that getting rid of your kind was more important."

"I see, but I also understand that you haven't stopped him."

"Of course not. Our rules prevent us from interfering in matters of the lower plane," Morgana replied, grinning widely. "Besides, the Ark was on Celestis. We couldn't reach him even if we wanted to stop him. Which we didn't."

"I see." Apparently, the Alterran she'd met had kept his word when he'd warned her he was going to destroy them if they didn't leave the Milky Way. She had to admit, she hadn't believed him then, and she still wasn't completely sure how he managed to reach _Celestis,_ of all places, without dying instantly, but that was also irrelevant at the moment. "So, what now?"

"Well, mostly, it is up to you. You have the ability to ascend, but I think that you won't find many _supporters_ if you were to do that. Not that you have a lot of them in the lower plane either when I think about it. But before I answer what I have in mind, I would like to ask you a few questions. If you don't mind of course."

"At this point, you can ask whatever you want."

"Good! The thing that interests me the most is, now that you've been affected by the Ark the same way as the rest of your _former_ followers, do your genetic memories conflict with what the Ark did to you?"

Adria thought about it, searching through her extensive knowledge that had been implanted into her on a genetic level. She had to admit, a lot of that knowledge now resounded in her mind as untruthful, "Some."

"I thought as much," Morgana replied. "Are your _genetic_ memories telling you that the Alterrans wanted to destroy the Ori and that we didn't do it before only because your kind had become strong enough by sapping power from the humans in your galaxy?"

"They do."

"And do you still believe that to be the truth. Do you still believe we always wanted to destroy you, just like the Ori told you?"

"No."

"Interesting. So, in a way, you were brainwashed by your ascended brethren the same way as their followers."

Adria felt anger, "I wasn't brainwashed. I knew why we needed human followers."

"Really? So tell me. Why _did_ you need followers?"

"To fight y…" Adria began her reply, but she stopped. It was true. The Ori did sap energy from humans in order to fight the Alterrans, but that wasn't the whole truth. If the only reason for doing it was to fight the Alterrans, creating more Ori, the same as she'd been in the lower plane, and then letting them ascend in order to build their numbers, would have been the logical step. Building up in numbers would have been even more effective than only using humans for their energy. Combined, the Ori would have quickly become strong enough to face the Alterrans. But, of course if the ascended Ori had done so, then they would have to share the energy sapped from humans with their newly ascended kin.

And finally, the truth that had been hidden from her by the Ori, hit her like a hammer. Not only did the already ascended Ori spread the plague to kill the Alterrans, but they'd spread the same disease among their own people still in the lower plane because they didn't want them to ascend. Even five million years ago, the Ori had planned to create humans in the lower plane, and they didn't want more Ori to ascend because they would have to share energy with them. And the reality was that the ascended Ori's primary goal wasn't to gather power in order to fight the Alterrans, but it was rather just for the sake of gathering more power. They were power hungry. That was the truth.

And if she succeeded and won the war against the Alterrans, the ascended Ori would have killed her rather than having allowed her to join them. Adria didn't know if she felt more sad or angry.

"Do you understand now?"

"But, but… I _knew_ the ascended Ori lied to me when they implanted the genetic memory of your people having spread the disease, but even Liam believed me when I told him the Ori didn't spread the disease."

"He believed you because he didn't know the truth. Even we weren't sure the Ori had spread the disease. We knew it must have been some ascended beings because we would otherwise have found some trace of how the disease had been spread. And that belief pointed us in the direction of the Ori as the culprit, but we had no certain proof of that, and we also knew there are other ascended beings in the universe, so, any one of them could have been the culprit. But only the Ori had a real motive to spread it. On the other hand, the fact that the plague struck your people as well as ours contradicted that motive. We couldn't find a logical reason why the ascended Ori would spread the disease among their own people, especially not if their only concern was to become stronger in order to fight us. But when we understood their plan to seed your galaxy with humans in order to tap into their core energy so they could become stronger, we started having suspicions about them not wanting to share that power, even with their own kind."

This was messed up, Adria had to admit it. She wasn't an angel, far from it, but even she wouldn't have killed their own kin. And the fact that she would have followed with the same faith once her mission was over, hurt a lot. "So, what now?"

"Now, I have a proposition for you. If you are to agree with a few terms, you will be allowed to live freely."

"What terms?"

"The first term is that you will not be allowed to ascend for the next two hundred years," Morgana said, noticing the deep frown on Adria's face. She smiled, before continuing. "And second, you must agree to have your genetic memories… uhm… altered."

"Altered? Why? I know what memories are false! There's no need to alter them!"

"For now, yes. You can detect which memories are false, but that won't last. Your genetic memories are simply too strong. Let just say those memories are set in stone, and sooner or later those memories will be able to override what the Ark did to you. And that's something we can't allow to happen."

"I see." Adria replied, not liking it, but she understood the reason. Genetic memories had the downside of being fixed. "And what does this _alteration_ entails?"

"That is actually simple to explain. What you now know to be false, it must become true on a genetic level."

Adria made a mental sigh. She thought they were planning something worse. Like, erasing everything or something like _that!_ Still, there was a little problem, not directly related to the conditions being set upon her. Adria shrugged visibly, "And what then? I mean, I have nowhere to go."

"That could be a problem, yes. But I think that, after we are done here, and if you set for the Andromeda galaxy and go talk to Liam once he comes back, I think you will find he's able to forgive and find some place for you. Mind you, it won't be easy, and forgiveness won't happen overnight, but I think you can at least find a place to stay for the near future. And maybe in time, if you explain to the priors and humans in your galaxy that you were brainwashed too, you may find a place there too." Morgana explained, although she didn't think that would happen any time soon. The humans in the Ori galaxy were angry at her and they would not so easily accept her. But there was something she could do for them that could in time change their minds. And that was also the reason why the Alterrans were ready to set such mild conditions upon her. She was the only one in the lower plane who knew how to turn humans in their galaxy into priors, and that was something they would need if the Ori galaxy was to find stability. Well, maybe Liam could do it instead of Adria, but the Ori galaxy wasn't his responsibility. But this was also a fact that, at this moment, no one needed to know, not even Adria.

"I do not share your optimism. I'm more of the opinion I'll get shot the moment I show my face there," Adria replied.

"Well, there _is_ always that risk, I won't deny it, but I don't think that is going to happen. But, in the end, it is your decision where you go from here, as long as you agree to the two rules I explained to you."

Adria thought about their entire conversation for a long time, the whole time, Morgana standing there in front of her and simply waiting for her response. "Fine. I agree."

* * *

**The Andromeda Galaxy – Liam's space station**

Only two hours ago, Liam's ship had returned from the Ori galaxy, the only ship to return. While the rest of the Guardians had remained in the Ori galaxy, his ship had sped at max speed back home. The euphoria the people on the station had felt seeing the ship coming back home after such victory had lasted only until they understood why the ship had returned so soon. Liam was in a coma.

Aenea was sitting in a chair next to Liam's bed, looking at her comatose husband. A vast battery of test had been performed, all with the same result. Nobody had a clue what was going on with him. The readings those tests were giving back were impossible to understand. They were detecting some form of energy that should not exist in the lower plane, shifting inside him and physically changing him, with brain scans showing constant change in his neural pathways. New pathways were constantly being formed without any explanation of how or why this was happening.

Aenea was so angry at him he wanted to beat the crap out of him. He pulled one of his stupid stunts again. Although, she had to admit to herself, her anger wasn't entirely directed at him. The real reason that made her feel so angry was the inability to help in any way.

And the reason why she wasn't able to help was because she wasn't an ascended being anymore.

After she had told Liam about the Ark of Truth, the Elders had reconvened and decided that what she'd done was a clear breach of their rule of noninterference with the mortal plane. They had unceremoniously dumped her on Eden Prime less than an hour after Liam had left for the Ori galaxy.

_Those bastards!_

And the sadness she had felt had been only slightly mitigated by the knowledge that Liam would soon return and she could spend some real time with him. But, even in a million years - and she had lived for more than a million years so it wasn't just a euphemism - she didn't think he would have returned in such state. It was so unfair. By telling Liam about the Ark, she had saved their collective asses, and the reward the ascended elders bestowed upon her for that had been to dump her into the mortal plane. And now she didn't have any way to help him.

As she continued thinking about the unfairness of her situation, the door of the room opened with a man in strange robes entering like a bullet, only to stop when he saw her. Apparently, the man didn't know who she was. "Hello, Jack."

Jack looked confused. He looked at Liam lying on the bad and then at the woman sitting next to it, not having a clue who she was, but apparently she knew who _he_ was. "Hello. Do we know each other?"

"No, not really. I'm Aenea."

"Wife?"

"Yes."

"So, can you help him?"

"No," Aenea replied, shrugging.

"No, you can't because you don't know how, or no because of that bunch of higher plane rules that prevent you from doing anything?"

"I don't know how."

"How come? Don't you ascended bunch know everything?"

"No, the ascended bunch doesn't know everything, and no I can't help him because I'm not a member of that ascended bunch anymore."

"What?"

"I was dumped back in this plane because I broke the rules."

"You did? How?" Jack replied, already liking her a bit more. Whoever broke those rules had his admiration.

"I told Liam about the Ark."

"That's it? I mean, Liam told me you told him about that, but I thought the others would have at the very least closed an eye on that… _indiscretion_, especially since by telling him he was able to save their collective asses."

"My thought exactly. But, as you can see…" Aenea replied, leaving the thought trail off.

Jack waited a moment without saying anything. He could sense she wasn't very happy about having been dumped back in the mortal realm. He turned toward Liam. "So, the doc here on the station said he has no clue what's going on with Liam."

"Nobody does. It's usually that way when Liam's concerned. He has the maddening ability to pull stupid stunts like this one from time to time."

"Oh yeah? I mean, I know about his little experiment a few years back, that could have definitely gone wrong, but that's it. Nothing else."

"Well, that's because you didn't know him five million years ago. I think he and Janus would probably have been best pals if they knew each other."

"Wait, I know that name. Oh…" Jack replied, thinking about the Attero and Arcturus devices, both Janus' inventions. "Well, I'm optimistic about this. He'll pull through, you'll see. He'll be back with us in no time."

Aenea didn't reply anything, but from her expression Jack had the chilling feeling she was waiting for Liam to wake up so she could kill him herself. She was pissed, that much he was certain of.

As Jack took another chair and placed it on the other side of the bed where he sat on it, above them, two ascended beings watched them.

"Do you have any idea what's going on with Liam?" Oma asked.

"No clue," Ilium replied.

"Yeah, me neither, but I think he'll pull through," Oma replied, also seeing Ilium sharing her optimism. "Aenea seems pissed though. I mean, at us pissed."

"She seems pissed because she _is_ pissed. And I would be pissed too if I got dumped in the lower plane. Wouldn't you?"

"Yeah, I would, and I'm still not all that sure it was the right thing to do. We usually don't do things like that." Oma said, not liking how the Elders, which Ilium was a member of, have acted in this situation.

"What things? Punishing people for breaking the rules?"

"Oh no, that you do in abundance. I was thinking about the lying about the real reason why the Elders have decided, out of the blue, to dump her."

"So, you figured it out."

"It wasn't that difficult, Ilium. The decision was simply too unanimous. I know Alistair would have never have punished her like that for such a small infraction. If he did, he would have to punish himself a thousand times over by now," Oma replied with a smile. "Not to mention _you_."

Ilium looked almost ashamed. "You're the one to speak."

"True, true," Oma replied. "So, what was the real reason?"

"The battle with the Ori. I knew it was inevitable, and couldn't risk for her getting killed."

"Yeah, I had the feeling that was the real reason. But I fear your little lie won't stay hidden for very long."

"Hey! How should I have known at the time that Liam would be able to access his ascended knowledge? And _retain_ it! Something like this is, as far as we know, _impossible!_"

"Well, when Liam is concerned, all bets are off. You should have understood that by now. And that's something you told me the same day I watched him turn into the biggest yo-yo in the universe, jumping between our and the mortal plane like a madman. And with the full knowledge he had when he was ascended, he'll understand what you did in a blink of an eye. If there's somebody who really knows you, that's _ascended-Liam,_ your protégé."

Ilium sighed, "I'm not worried about that. I'm more worried he'll remember _everything_."

Oma looked strangely at Ilium, thinking what he meant exactly by that, when it dawned. "Oh _crap_!"

"Crap indeed," Ilium replied. "But let's be real here. There's no _chance _he can hold onto the entire knowledge, not in his current form, it's simply impossible, and _that… specific _knowledge I've buried _very _deep inside his subconscious, so it won't be the first thing that pops into his mind, that's for certain."

"I don't know. Look at how his neural pathways are reforming to perfectly align with his ascended core energy. And mind you, you told me how it was impossible for him to retain his ascended energy in that form when he performed that yo-yo act and look at him now."

"I know, I know, I'm not blind, but I'm still convinced he won't remember everything. It's just impossible to access such knowledge when you're made of flesh and blood."

While Ilium wishfully predicted what Liam would and wouldn't remember, in the lower plane, while lying in the medical bed, Liam suddenly opened his eyes. He then began grinning like a madman, before uttering only three words. "_Clava Thessara Infinitas._"

And Ilium's reaction after hearing those words could also have been easily expected, "_Crap! Crap! Crap!_"

And Oma's reply didn't help Ilium's mood one bit, "I told you so."

"If _he_ - _Gah!_ - Who am I kidding? ..._Of course he will!_ …Oh, for the love… I need to… _Gah! _I've known from the moment I met him he was going to cost me immense pain and grief," Ilium blurted out half incoherently, before speeding like a bullet towards the Milky Way galaxy.

Oma remained there, laughing wholeheartedly. The five million years old backup plan had just gone down the crapper.

* * *

_**Please leave a review. They're always appreciated. **_


	29. Aftermath

_**Author's note: **__I must admit, this week has been a very prolific one, at least in the writing department. Not only I was able to write the next two chapters of this story, but I've finally come up with enough material to start the spin-off, the one between the Stargate and the Galactica universe, that I was planning to start posting for a very long time now, but somehow never found enough time for it. So, if you want, there's __**Stargate: The Twelve Colonies**__ in my profile now for you to read. Unfortunately the events in the spin-off are not in sync with this story, but since there won't be much overlapping between them, I don't think there will be much confusion. So, even if you decide to not read the spin-off, there won't be parts in this story you won't understand because of it._

_And, with this chapter, this second story has finally broken the 300,000 words roof! I knew it was going to be a long one, even before I started writing it, and I'm far from done yet._

_**Reviews:**_

_**Mattblue: **__more coming right away _

_**Sarkosianlifeform: **__Aenea getting killed could have had dire consequences, and the ascended Elder's Council knows much more that they let on._

_Well, Adria is definitely a bitch, or better yet, was a bitch, mostly because of the false genetic memories she had, but she will retain some bitchy characteristics, that's for sure. Later, it will be more explained about the negative side effects of having genetic memories, which involves another race we know. __ Actually, two races._

_That part was and intentional misdirection on my part. I don't like writing a straight forward story in which the reader always knows what will happen next. And it is only logical that the characters in the story don't get everything right or always know the truth. And I don't think anyone would be merciful to the Ori either. Such evil simply needs to be vanquished; the same as the Ori were planning to do to the Alterrans… and others. There's simply no redemption for them._

_From the show, I got the impression that the president of the Rand Protectorate was depicted like the kind of man who would act in exactly this manner if he was given a chance. Ruthless… and dumb as a rock._

_**Oddliver: **__The site warns me that it could take up to 30 minutes after I post a chapter to be displayed on the site. When that happens to me, on some other story I read, I usually get to the last chapter I've already read, and then change the number of the chapter directly in the address bar (from 28 to 29 for example) and then it succeeds in displaying it, even though the dropdown doesn't show the chapter yet. ;) _

_**Nano101: **__Why, thank you. I try._

_**EvilTheLast: **__Ah well, I think the Terrans got used to strange things by know. The secretary probably didn't even flinch at seeing two naked people in Jack's office, especially after all day having two Jacks coming and going out of it, sometimes alone, sometimes in pair. Mini Jack will be the straw though._

_**Some101: **__Yeah, somehow just killing Adria seemed to easy… and final. I need the character later._

_**Eastwood6510: **well, by now the beans have definitely been spilled, at least in Jack's regard. There's a lot of stuff I'm inclined to reveal, but somehow I manage to keep my mouth shut until it's the right time. In the next chapter I'll spill the bean on something I was planning for more than a year now, even before I wrote the first line of the first book. And no, it's not about the key to infinite treasure. For that you'll have to stew for a little longer._

_Glad you managed to reach this point in the story before I posted the next chapter._

**_Thanks to my beta, and hope you'll like this chapter too._**

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy - Terrania**

"Did you just come back so you can make my life even more miserable than it already is?" Jack spat at Sheppard. "Don't you think I have enough problems to deal with as it is?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sheppard replied. "I'm just relaying a concern I'm… _feeling_, ever since I came back."

"I know you do. It's the _third_ time you are relaying that concern to me… and to other council members too!" Jack replied angrily. Then he noticed that other people in the mess hall were shyly turning to look in their direction. Apparently he was yelling without knowing he was doing it.

"Jack, you must admit, what John's telling has some logic to it," Daniel put a word in.

"Daniel, I'm not saying it has no merit, and it isn't even something I haven't thought about before," Jack said, now pissed at Daniel too, but he also wasn't that surprised at the support John was getting from him. "I'm just saying that I don't understand the sudden hurry over this. And I also know that Sheppard here didn't have any of these thoughts before ascending. So, another question is, who put these _feelings_ in his thick scull?"

"Well, that's easy," Daniel replied promptly. "Some ascended being did. Oma, or maybe Ilium."

"Hey! Can't it be _my _idea?" Sheppard practically yelled in protest. But then he frowned, thinking about it for a little more. "No, you are right. It doesn't sound like my idea. But it's not like I don't agree with it!"

"In principle, I don't disagree with what you said either. But what do you want me to do? Stop any trade with our off-world partners. And then what? Neither we get the resources we need, nor are they happy about losing their end of the bargain. You think the Pangarans would be happy if we stop excavating their Trinium they are not even using, or know even _how_ to use, and also stop giving them… whatever they are getting in return?" Jack explained his conundrum. "Both sides would end up being miserable for it!"

"Well, Jack, from experience I can tell you that happiness and the right thing to do rarely have anything in common," Daniel said.

"Sure, and are _you_ going to be the one going there to explain to them that we are stopping trade relations because – _what? _– it is the _right_ thing to do? You think they'll understand that!" Jack replied, frustrated.

"Then we don't stop the trade," Sheppard added, thoughtfully.

"What? Are you changing your mind now?" Jack replied. Even Daniel didn't understand what John was getting at.

"Well, I think the change must come from us, that's a given. Why don't we start exploring the possibility of mining asteroid fields instead first? If Tollana and Terra Nova, as well as Asura in Pegasus, have those precious metals on the surface of their planet, I bet their in-system asteroid fields have even more of it. We can then calculate how much of an over cost building the needed infrastructure to mine asteroids would be, and then we offer our allies if we can mine their worlds for a slightly lower price, but not for the trinkets we are giving them now. We also explain to them the real ramifications for them if we were to deplete their deposits. We explain that in the future, maybe hundreds of years from now, they could have great use for those materials. Hell, the Edorans are now getting a few tractors and some cheap tools to help them produce more food in exchange for tons of Naquadah, and they probably think they are getting more than the material is worth. And that's not right, I can tell you that much."

"Oh, come on! They are getting more than that… _I think_, but I get your point," Jack replied. He was also thinking how the Edorans, and others, were getting screwed just because they couldn't appreciate the real value of what they were giving away. "But what about Babylon One? We can't just shut it down! And even if we could, and did, it wouldn't change anything. Races in Pegasus would simply find another place to make deals."

"Don't know. Really have no idea on how to solve that one, but we must start somewhere."

"Maybe we shouldn't stop the trade on Babylon One, but instead instill some edicts, prohibiting the exchange of despaired goods maybe. Those that promote exploitation and when the technological gap is too great," Daniel added thoughtfully. He wasn't sure how it would work, but it was at least an idea.

"That, Daniel, is a great idea. Except for how the other races will see it. They won't think of it as the right thing to do, or a way to minimize exploitation from other more advanced races. They will see it as _us_ trying to control them. I can bet their first thought will be of _us_ not wanting for them to acquire technology that can become a threat to us, no matter that that isn't the truth. And nobody will be able to convince them otherwise, no matter how much we try," Jack replied.

"Well, let's at least agree to start thinking about it. Maybe create a think-tank working on finding a solution to the problem," Daniel added. They were not going to get a solution in one day anyway.

"To that, I can agree in a heartbeat. As long as I'm not getting Sheppard in my office every two days, I'm all for it," Jack replied, happily, also noticing the frown on Sheppard's face. "Besides, we have other things, more _important_ things, to worry about right now."

"Like what?" John asked. There was a lot he didn't know. After all, he hadn't been present for the past six months.

"Well, of immediate concern is the sudden, and en masse, _descention_ that happened only days ago."

"What's the problem with that?" Sheppard asked.

"Look behind you," Jack replied.

Sheppard raised an eyebrow, inconspicuously turning his head to look behind. Three tables away, he saw Rodney and Jennifer having a heated discussion.

"_I just want to know why you couldn't send at least a message that you were OK!"_

"_And I'm telling you again, I don't remember! What you want from me! We probably weren't allowed."_

"_Yeah sure! But you were allowed to somehow have your laptop filled with strange schematics!"_

"_Keep your voice down! I still have no idea what those files are. I don't even understand them! Besides who's to say that I was the one to fill my laptop with those files?"_

"_Who else Rodney!? Who else would fill YOUR laptop?"_

Sheppard turned, "I see what you mean, but they'll pull through."

"I'm not worried about _them,_ Sheppard. I'm more worried about the thousands upon thousands of people that suddenly appeared back on Earth."

"What about them?" Sheppard asked.

Daniel was smiling while shaking his head, "Did you see the latest news?"

"Yeah," Jack replied with a thin smile. He shouldn't smile, he knew that, but he couldn't help himself.

"What news?" Sheppard had returned from the higher plane only days ago, and he'd had no time to watch TV. He'd been swamped with more important things.

"Well, a guy descended in his home… and got stubbed by his wife."

"Why?"

"Well, his wife is claiming she was startled by his sudden appearance, it was in the middle of the night after all, but the news reports the investigator thinks otherwise. They think it has something to do with the insurance policy, somewhere around three million dollars' worth, that she received after her husband had been declared dead. And that she partially spent and that now needs to be returned."

"Poor bastard. He survives the fight against the Ori, only to get back home and be stubbed by his wife. That's plain bad luck. Did he die?" Sheppard asked.

"No, apparently he's a stubborn bugger. He ended in intensive care, currently in a coma, but the doctors think he'll eventually pull through," Jack explained. "But the problem is that _that_ wasn't an isolated incident. And keep in mind that people on Earth have no clue about ascended beings and that no country is ready to open that can of worms. Those that actually haven't returned are making people ask even more questions, and I'm not sure 'no comment' is going to fly on this one."

"You don't think they'll settle down eventually?" John asked.

"Maybe, probably, but the timing couldn't be worse," Jack added.

"Worse? Why?" John asked.

Daniel was the one to pick up, "Because, with the Chinese finally part of the Terran Alliance, we were pushing for the last phase of the Unification to start, and any unrest and fear could have dangerous consequences. We already have enough problems passing our proposed model for the Unification as it is."

John thought about it and he couldn't agree more. The Unification of Earth was the last step, the one that would bring all people on Earth finally together, but the proposed model was a difficult one to achieve, and any misstep could have dire consequences. The first problem was in the proposal itself, in which the highest authority in the new unified Earth and other planets like Tollana, Asura and Terra Nova, would have a sort of Federal Council and a Federal Parliament. The biggest problem was that, except of course for the fact that the Federal Council would be comprised of the same members of the current Terran Council holding executive power, the Federal Parliament would also be comprised from members of the four Terran planets who wouldn't be elected through a purely democratic system. The system would after all be a meritocratic one in which only those who have proven their expertise, leadership skills, wisdom and selflessness through hard work in a certain field and were also tested for their validity to their claims, would be eligible to be chosen as _possible_ members of the parliament. From the selected pool of highly competent candidates from each planet, a democratic process, in which people would vote for their candidates, would elect each planet's representatives comprised from each field of expertise. Based on the total population of a certain planet in the Terran Federation, a planet could have at least one representative in each field of expertise. Furthermore, experts in a certain field would have more pull if there was to vote on a new legislation in their direct field of expertise. In a way, to everyone in the current Terran Council, it was logical to have people who actually knew something in their field to have more votes than other representatives who had no clue what they were talking about.

And the worst part was that the current Terran Council members would become permanent members of the new Federal Council who could only be deposed if a vote of no confidence was enacted or if they decided to step down. If deposed, a new council member would be chosen, again from the pool of experts in the same field and currently a member of the Federal Parliament. All this didn't sit very well with politicians on Earth, who would probably never have even the slightest of chances to even be chosen as possible candidates for the Federal Parliament, much less sit on it or become members of the Terran Federal Council. Just the thought that to even become eligible for the Federal Parliament they would need to sit in front of a lie detector and be asked questions, probably sent chills down their spines. Adding the fact that they needed to show they were renowned experts in some field, meant 99 percent of the current Earth's politicians wouldn't even try!

But all this wasn't even the worst problem in the Unification proposal, and the reason why was because this wasn't the position the local politicians would mostly seek. Of course it was tempting, but since the Federal Parliament and Council would in no way have power over the local government of a planet, the sought position was instead the intended planetary government, with each planet selecting the governmental model they wished to have and through that model select those who would govern over the planet and their people. In their wisdom, the current Terran Council understood that current Earth's governments would never accept releasing all power to them, so they decided that each planet would have its own government. Of course, the still-to-be-written Federal Constitution could not be infringed by any Planetary Constitution, only complemented, but for everything else, each planet could choose the desired governmental model they wished. Even a kingdom if they wanted.

And here the problem of over two hundred nations on Earth, all pushing for their ideas, was coming as the biggest problem. Adding the fact that the Terran council was still pushing for Earth to create a single government based on the same or similar model as the one proposed for the _federal _government, it was making things ten times worse. The Terrans were actually hoping for a referendum in which the people of Earth would chose the desired model, in which case they were more hopeful for the vote to turn in their favor, much more than leaving politicians alone decide. After all, the people of Earth would get their democratic elections, only those who could be elected in the first place would have to go through extensive scrutiny and be someone who was an expert in their field. A win-win proposition for any citizen who actually liked not having corrupt politicians in power, and instead having experts who knew what needed to be done, and yet retain their right to vote.

And this was also the reason why any trouble on Earth at this point was unwelcome, no matter how small.

"I get it. This is a bigger problem right now than our trading with other humans in the Universe."

"Yeah, not to mention what will happen when we disclose the Genesis Project," Jack added, seeing Daniel nodding emphatically.

"Crap! I completely forgot about that one! Wouldn't be better to postpone it until the Unification is well underway," Sheppard added.

"I don't think there will be a better moment. We will hear crap from the representatives the moment we notify them of our intensions, and no, we can't keep it a secret. Not on this one," Jack said, also preemptively explaining they couldn't keep it secret since he'd felt what Sheppard's next suggestion would have been.

"Jack is right," Daniel added. "We can't keep it secret and start the second phase without telling them we are doing it."

The first phase had been completed more than a month ago, in which several hundred Terrans had gone through the transformation procedure devised by Liam, without any witnessed side effects. The procedure had been then deemed safe, so there was no reason to delay it any longer. The process in which any Terran would be given the option to accelerate their evolution could start even today, without risk of unforeseen side effects. But if they started changing Terrans en masse, without telling the rest of Earth they were doing it, it could have dire consequences for the planned Unification.

"Well, let's wait a week or two for things to settle down before we tell them," Jack added, noticing Daniel's approving nod. He was about to add something, but his earpiece chirped in his ear. "What is it? All right. Got it. I'll be right there." Jack replied to whoever he was talking through his earpiece before turning toward Daniel, with a huge smile on his face.

"What?" Daniel asked after having noticed his smile.

"Just got word the missing Aurora has entered the Solar system."

"The one with SG-1 on board?" Daniel asked.

"Do you know of any other Aurora we've misplaced recently?" Jack asked, sarcasm dripping with each word.

"Good point."

"Let's go meet them. They'll beam down in the gateroom any moment now," Jack said, getting up from his chair.

John and Daniel followed suit, all of them quickly storming out of the mess hall.

Unknown to them, or to any other human on Terrania, two ascended beings stood in the mess hall, close to the table where Rodney and Jennifer were seated.

"That weasel!" Oma said. "How did he do it?"

"I don't know. You were the one supposed to watch over him," Ilium replied with a slightly accusing tone.

"I can guarantee you, once he got here in the Milky Way galaxy, he didn't leave it for the rest of the time he was ascended. I would have known if he went back to the Pegasus galaxy to _fill_ his laptop."

"I don't know, but the evidence is clear. We just don't know how he did it."

Oma was thoughtful for a moment, then, without a word, she disappeared for a brief moment. When she returned, she had an angry look on her face, but there was also a trace of recognition. "Well, he is definitely a weasel, but a smart one."

"What did you find out?" Ilium asked.

"He knew there was no way he could leave my sight for long enough to reach the Pegasus galaxy, but he didn't need to," Oma explained. "Each week Terrania and Asura connect through the gate in order to synchronize data. I found evidence that only seconds before Terrania sent their data to Asura, he had added a few emails to be sent to himself from an undisclosed recipient, _directly_ in the to be transferred data buffer. He was not only capable of fooling us, but he also did it each week so that the data wouldn't be too big for the Terrans to notice something strange going on during the data transfer."

"Huh. That _was_ clever, but the thing I don't understand is how he thought that he could get away with it. I mean, we now know what he did. I'll simply erase whatever he sent to himself."

"I don't believe he thought he would get away with it, not completely at least." Oma said looking at Ilium's puzzled expression. "Don't you _see_? He's using our own rules against _us_! By our own rules we can't delete the data, or even punish him now that he's back in the lower plane!"

Ilium felt anger rising inside him, "You're right. We _shouldn't_!"

Oma didn't like the answer. "You're not thinking of breaking the rules, our own rules, are you?"

"Of course I'm thinking about it!"

"No, no. I know you're angry, but he duped us fair and square. And you know as well as I do that two wrongs don't make one right."

Ilium thought about it, fuming inside, "_Fine!_ But better for him if he never ascends again or the moment he does, I'm putting him on patrol duty for the next millennium! Or ten!"

"Oh, that is a given! But as long as he's in the mortal plane, we can't touch him, not without breaking our own rules."

Ilium mumbled something Oma couldn't understand, before replying. "Just great! This is exactly what we needed after what Liam was able to remember, which is the next best thing to _everything! _Did you check what McKay took back with him?_"_

"A lot of what he learned in the six months he'd spent with us, but of most notice is theories related to the extraction of zero point energy from their dimension."

"Of course. Why not take knowledge that can blow entire star systems when you have the chance," Ilium replied frustrated. "There's no way he can understand the theory behind it. Not now that he's human again."

"He doesn't have to. He made the schematics he needs to build everything."

"Oh that's just perfect. Not only has he taken something that can blow entire star system, but he also has ready to use schematics he doesn't even understand."

"Yeah, not the best combination, I know. Let's hope he's at least smart enough to ask Liam before he tries to build it. And let's also hope they don't use it on board their warships. The technology is unstable enough as it is. Using it during battle conditions when the wrong hit can cause a catastrophic failure of a component… not good, definitely not good," Oma replied, shaking her head.

"I wouldn't put my money on them not doing exactly _that_ though. _Bah!_ I'm leaving. I have more important things to do. And definitely less depressing."

"Me too."

While the two ascended beings were talking before disappearing on their separate ways, the trio who'd previously left the mess hall, had quickly made their way through the many corridors in order to reach their destination. They entered the gateroom just as a flash of white light deposited SG-1 minus Peters who hadn't been taken by the Aschen in the first place.

Jack quickly approached the SG-1 team, "It's about time you showed up! I don't remember having given any of you any Leave Time. So, how about someone tells me where have you been for the past three months?"

"Hello, sir. Nice to be back, sir," Mitchell began. "Well, the short version is that the energy from the expanding star bled through the hyperspace window pushing us into a much deeper hyperspace band and at a much faster relative speed. At least that's what the engineer said happened and what blew all primary power conduits to hell. We ended up in the middle of nowhere, somewhere between here and some other galaxy we've never been to. So, before we could start limping back home we had to rig some superconductive conduits to power the starboard hyperdrive since the one on the port aft side also blew up, just like the conduits. And the rest was a slow crawl back here, sir."

After a short moment, spent processing what Mitchell said, Jack replied, "Well, I'm glad you are back all in one piece."

"Glad to be back home too, sir," Mitchell replied, glancing at Vala. "One more week cooped up on the same ship with _her_ and I would have entered one of those stasis pods we have on board for the rest of the trip. The ship is big, but apparently not big enough."

"I was bored, and none of the crew wanted to do anything for fun! And you know I can't stand still for three months doing nothing."

Mitchell wanted to say something, but the gate activating stopped him. He waited, watching as the event horizon formed behind the already raised shield, and then the shield drop. From the gate, Teal'c stepped through.

As he noticed the little group of well-known people, he moved towards them. "Colonel Mitchell, Vala Mal Doran, I am glad you were able to safely return. When has this occurred?"

"Just now, Teal'c. What brings you to Earth?" Mitchell asked.

"I have an urgent matter I need to discuss with O'Neill," Teal'c said, looking at him.

"What is it, T?" Jack asked, noticing Teal'c's worried expression.

"In the last few days the Jaffa have noticed a change in the Aschen tactics that is of great concern. They have become… more _aggressive_ in their approach to the war," Teal'c explained.

Jack was about to reply, but stopped when _another _flash of light deposited Liam next to them, "Okay, I think the gateroom is becoming slightly too crowded. Hi Liam. What's up?"

"Not much. I just wanted to discuss a few things related to the Ori demise," Liam said.

"The Ori are _gone_!?" Mitchell and Vala exclaimed at the same time.

"When has this transpired?" Teal'c asked, a little pissed he hadn't been informed earlier.

Jack turned toward him, noticing his raised eyebrow and pissed look, "Just a few days ago, Teal'c. We are still busy mopping up their followers around the galaxy, so it is not over yet. I was planning on calling you, but not before we could assess the entire situation. _But_, since there are a lot of us here that needs to discuss various things, why don't we meet half an hour from now in the conference room and this way give SG-1 some time to settle down. I can also call Sam so she can be present too."

"Good idea," Daniel replied.

SG-1 was the first to start moving, but before Vala could walk farther away and out of sight, Liam walked near her and grabbed her by her arm. Daniel watched as they talked about something he could not hear, but from Vala's expression it looked as if she didn't very much like what Liam was saying. As they finished talking, Liam went near Teal'c and Jack before all three of them went out of the gate room, probably to Jack's office or the conference room. Daniel watched as Vala remained still with a thoughtful expression. He decided to investigate, moving closer to her. "What's the matter? What did Liam say?"

Vala looked at Daniel, uncertain if she wanted to tell him. She took a deep breath before answering, "Adria is on Eden Prime. She asked Liam to relay a message. She wants to see me."

"Adria is on Eden Prime? What is she doing there?" Daniel asked.

"Sanctuary. Apparently she didn't have anywhere else to go after the Ori fell."

"And she wants to see you?"

"Yes. Apparently she's not well. Liam said that she has found out the Ori were planning on killing her the moment her mission was successful and that they'd lied to her the whole time. It seems that they used her the same way they used the rest of their followers."

"I can see now why she needed sanctuary. Everybody in the Ori galaxy probably wants her dead. But still I don't get why she asked Liam for it. It's not as if they are on great terms either."

"Liam said a certain ascended Alterran told her to go there after she cleaned up her false genetic memories and after telling her that she wouldn't be allowed to ascend for a very long time."

"Huh! That's strange! They must have some plans laid down for her that we don't know about," Daniel added thoughtfully. He then shook the thought, noticing Vala's sour mood. "Want some company?"

Vala looked at Daniel, "I didn't say I was planning to go."

"I know, but you're thinking about it. And you'll probably think about it for several days before you decide to go. So, why not decide to go right now and spare yourself a few days of mulling over it. Besides, I've never been on Eden Prime, and I'd really like to see the planet."

Vala looked at Daniel, "I'll think about it, but right now I need to go change before the meeting. See you in the conference room in twenty minutes, Daniel."

"All right. See you there," Daniel replied, not wanting to push the issue any further. It was a delicate matter and she needed to decide on her own what to do.

As Vala moved on her way out of the large room, Daniel noticed that he was the last in the gateroom, quickly deciding to go find out where Jack, Teal'c and Liam exactly went.

Jack and Liam had spent the past fifteen or so minutes explaining to Teal'c the current situation with the Ori, while waiting for the others to join them. They knew there was a good chance they would have to repeat whatever they'd explained to Teal'c again to Mitchell and Vala once they showed up, but it wasn't like they had other things to discuss in order to make the time pass faster in any case. They were reaching some sort of conclusion, explaining to Teal'c what had transpired with the Rand Protectorate and the Caledonians, when Sam entered the room.

As she quickly reached her seat around the oval table, Jack noticed her arrival, "Oh, hi Sam," Jack said, then quickly turned back to face Teal'c. "So, as I was saying, the Rand Protectorate stopped their military incursion in Caledonia, but by then most of the damage has already been done. Nuclear warheads tend to do that, you know."

"I understand. Maybe it is my Jaffa upbringing, but I cannot understand why someone would use such devices on civilians. Even in the days of the Goa'uld we always fought our enemy face to face, and not by sending nuclear devices on their civilian population. There is no honor in it." Teal'c explained, pausing to think about it a little more. "Would there be repercussions for the Rand Protectorate?"

"Oh, you can bet on it! Captain Donovan was even more restrained than I would have been in her position. If I was there, I would have asked for their unconditional surrender on the spot. But even as things are now on the planet, the Rand Protectorate is facing steep reparation and there will be charges brought to their leaders. Unfortunately, the one who should pay the most is actually dead. Killed by his own people."

"And what about Tagrea?" Teal'c asked. He'd been informed that Terran ships had also been sent on Tagrea, but nothing more specific than that.

"Well, the situation there is… _different_," Jack said, glancing at Sam who already knew what was going on on the planet. "We are still trying to stop any bloodshed between the Tagreans and the Ori followers on the ground."

"Are the followers so difficult to stop?" Liam asked, he as well wanting to know. And he knew that the Ark had done the job so…

"Not exactly. The problem is not in the followers, but the Tagreans," Jack started explaining. "From the moment the Ark was used, the followers have stopped fighting. They were actually preparing to leave, but the priors already on their ships just took off before the followers on the planet could board them. They're probably directed to the supergate in order to get back to their galaxy. The point is, they left their followers on the planet to fend for themselves, and they have no intention of fighting the Ori war any longer. The problem is that the Targeans don't know the followers have learned the truth about their masters, and they're out for blood. So, what we are doing on Tagrea is actually to try and prevent the Ori followers from getting killed by the Tagreans."

"I can see how that can be… _inconvenient_. How are the Targeans taking your involvement?" Liam asked while looking strangely at Jack. It was like he was measuring him from head to toe for some reason.

Jack saw the strange look he was getting, but decided not to ask. Instead he gave Liam a questioning look in return, while replying to his question. "That's definitely an understatement. So we have to keep the pissed off Tagreans at bay without injuring them while we pluck followers from our ships in orbit or send them through the gate to the Gamma Site. For now, they can stay there, at least until we decide what to do with them."

"Good idea. I talked with the Guardian who's in charge and who stayed in the Ori galaxy. He's working with the Doci to try to calm things down. They are still in complete disarray over there and I'm not sure how long it will take to instill some order again," Liam replied, still continuing to give Jack a strange look, now with a hint of disapproval in it too.

Jack suddenly had the feeling of being under the microscope for some to him unknown reason. "_What!?_"

Liam looked Jack straight in the eyes, "You are stressed!"

"You don't get points for stating the obvious. Of course I'm stressed! We are fighting several wars and more are coming our way!" Jack replied, still not understanding where Liam was going with this.

"That's an excuse, and you know it!" Liam replied. "I told you the day you became an Alterran that you needed to take more care of yourself. Your new physiology lets you sleep three or four hours tops, _if _that many, which means you spend the remaining twenty one hours minimum piling up crap in your head. I can _bet _you haven't given even a glance at the training program I gave you!"

"What training program?" Jack said, slightly confused.

"I gave you a personalized Repository of Knowledge, _with_ the training program in it!"

"And I told you I'm not sticking my head in that head-sucking thingy. Not that I even know how, since what you gave me looks like a metal _box._ There's nowhere to stick my head in, in the first place."

Liam rolled his eyes. Jack was being stubborn as always. "If you remember, and I know you do because you can't forget anything even if you wanted to, I also gave you a crystal with instructions on how to plug it into _any _control chair! You don't have to stick your head into anything."

"No, I'm not downloading anything into my head, and that's final. Besides, I have another way to relieve stress, and it's very effective. I just didn't have time for it."

"Oh please! _That_, is far from enough. I'm even baffled it helps at all."

"I assure you it does. Besides, I'm more than sure you don't even know of what I'm talking about."

Liam looked at Jack with narrowed eyes for a long moment without saying anything. "Simpsons?"

"Ok, you know of what I'm talking about. But I'm still not downloading all that knowledge into my head just to get to some stupid training program. I like having my head empty."

"Empty?" Liam replied, trying not to laugh.

Jack growled in frustration. "You know what I mean! I don't want all that sciency stuff into my head."

"Stubborn as always I see, which I knew you were even before I gave you that _box,_ as you call it_._ And if you took the time to read the instructions I left you in that crystal, you would have learned that your _personalized _Repository doesn't download anything into your thick skull if you don't want it to."

"It doesn't ?"

"No, it doesn't. I knew you didn't want the full download - and I can even understand why you don't want it, at least in part – so I modified the repository so you can access the knowledge inside through the chair's neural interface and browse through the knowledge it contains. When you find what you are looking for, you can decide if you want to download _that _specific knowledge, and that knowledge alone, or if you want to _read _it. Or are you against reading too?"

Jack looked at Liam a little sheepishly. "Oh, I didn't know that."

Unknown to Jack, it was very fortunate that at the moment there wasn't anything '_throwable'_ present on the table. Sam was simply turning into an angry volcano ready to erupt. The _idiot_ had unlimited access to the entire Alterran knowledge and didn't even know how to plug it into a control chair. If she had access to such treasure trove, she would probably spend _all _of her time locked in the chair room. She would probably need diapers because she wouldn't have the _will _to leave the chair and the repository even for going to the bathroom. It was good that Daniel wasn't here either, because, even after he'd made peace with the sad realization that Jack didn't want to go through the full download of the entire Alterran knowledge, if he knew Jack had the option to access only portions of the Repository whenever he wanted, which included the _entire history_ of the Alterrans, he would have taken a very thick stick and beaten Jack senselessly until he finally sat in the _damn chair! _And he probably wouldn't even let him go to a bathroom break either. Not until he was completely satisfied Jack learned enough.

At this point, Vala, Mitchell and Sheppard entered the conference room taking their seats. They did notice the strange tension in the room though.

"Oh, good you're here so we can finally go through this meeting," Jack replied, happy he'd been saved by the proverbial bell.

Liam still stared at Jack, not happy about the abrupt change in topic. "Jack?"

Jack turned back to face Liam. He realized he'd been trapped. There was no way out of this without him sticking his head in the accursed thing, or rather in this case, sit in the chair with the thing attached to it. "Fine! I'll do it. Happy now!"

"I am," Liam replied simply.

Jack sighed, happy this part was over even thought he'd technically lost, when he suddenly realized something else. He slowly, and fearfully, turned towards Sam, immediately noticing the glee in Sam's eyes. He'd just become an extension of the _box._ From this day on, he would be known as the box's terminal for anything _she_, and probably others, wanted to know. He'd rather live with the stress than this.

_Oh, am _so_ screwed!_

"Let's now go back to the reason, or reasons, we are here, shall we?" Jack replied, wanting to change the subject. He then turned towards Teal'c. "So, explain to us what this change in the Aschen MO you mentioned earlier is."

"In the last twenty four hours, the Aschen have executed several attacks on Jaffa worlds. They have become more forceful in their attacks, O'Neill. In two cases we were able to repel their forces, and they have even sustained greater loses than we have, but in one case they were able to penetrate our defenses and proceeded to bombard the planet from orbit," Teal'c explained.

"Losses?" Jack asked concerned. He didn't know which world fell, but if it was one like Chulak, there could have been millions of casualties.

"The planet they attacked was a Jaffa stronghold. Fortunately, it wasn't heavily populated as Chulak or Dakara are. Still, thousands Jaffa have perished trying to protect it. They died well O'Neill, taking many Aschen with them to their deaths."

"I'm sorry about your losses Teal'c," Jack replied somberly. "Any idea why the Aschen are becoming more aggressive? From what I know, and with the help of the other human worlds supporting this war, I thought the Aschen were on the defensive."

"I do not know, O'Neill." Teal'c replied, not understanding why the Aschen were suddenly taking such risks. And he knew it was a risk, because in two instances, the Aschen lost more than they gained, which meant they were pushing it very hard. Still, something had to be done because if not, losses would quickly mount, "But, I believe that, as you would say it, the excrements have just impacted the rotatory cooling device."

Jack stared at Teal'c, mouth agape, while in his mind making a few quick _adjustments _to Teal'c's sentence.

_excrements = shit, impacted = hit, rotatory cooling device = fan _

Jack, thought about _correcting_ his friend, but now it definitely wasn't the time. "You said the change came in the last twenty four hours?"

"I did."

Jack turned and looked at Daniel, thinking about something. "Do you think it is possible the Aschen have heard about the Ori?"

Daniel thought about it. It was possible. "You think they know the Ori are gone, and are pushing with everything they got? That could be it, but shouldn't their reaction be the opposite? I mean, if they fear we are now free from the Ori menace, wouldn't the logical thing for them to do be to kowtow in front of our feet asking for mercy."

"Yeah, it would be, but I don't think they would react like that. I think they don't understand _us_ the way they should," Jack replied thoughtfully.

"How do you mean, they don't understand us?" Daniel asked, puzzled.

"Think about it. In their minds we are primitive, _emotional_, creatures, who in such situation react in no other way than emotionally. To them, we probably look like savages who will give in to their emotions – anger specifically – and lash out at them the first chance we get."

"You think that _they think_ there's no chance of peace and that if they lose we will level their planet no matter if they surrender or not."

"Well, it's not _that farfetched, _is it? Especially after we already nuked their world. They won't think of it as a mistake we made while trying to destroy their orbital shipyards that will never repeat itself. They almost certainly think we will do it again and again until they are completely gone. And they are not completely wrong either. How many people think that leveling the Aschen is the only solution to this war? I for one don't have a sure solution. Not one that with certainty can guarantee they won't resurface in ten or twenty years if they surrender now."

"So, the Aschen think there is no surrender on the table. Can we somehow let them know that there is?"

"I don't think so, no. Would you accept our word that if they surrender _we_, emotional creatures that we are, won't nuke them the instant they lay their arms on the ground?"

"Probably not," Daniel replied, still thinking if there was a way to stop this war.

Jack sighed, shaking his head. "So our only option is to hammer them to scrap, and then ask for their surrender. Only then, when there is no doubt that we actually don't have to ask them for anything, especially if our goal is to level them, only then will they accept it."

"I think you are right, _unfortunately_," Liam added. "There is still the problem of accomplishing that of course. We need to destroy that satellite grid they have around their planet. Only then will they understand how hopeless their situation is and accept a request for unconditional surrender."

"I was thinking about that," Sam said, already having something in mind. "Liam, do you believe we could use your time-dilation torpedoes to block their satellites?"

Liam thought about it. It was a possibility, but there were still too many satellites and the weapons used to destroy them would be affected too. Sooner or later the time-dilation field would dissipate and there is no chance they could destroy tens of thousands of shielded satellites of various sizes and strength. And the moment the time-dilation field ceased, the satellites would fire such a volley that no ship could survive it. Even if the satellites managed to fire a single shot before they were destroyed, it would be more than enough to destroy a lot of ships. They needed to somehow prevent them from even firing once. But how could they…

"Jack, can you bring the Aschen system on the view screen, please?" Liam asked, thoughtfully. As Jack brought the planet Aschen Prime in focus, Liam scrutinized the image and the displayed information on their defenses. "A time-dilation field is a good idea, but it won't work. With a time-dilation field, our weapons cannot reach the satellites before the field collapses, which means they would have enough time to fire at least one shot. Even more since there is no way we can target ten thousand satellites at once. We simply don't have the necessary number of ships. But what if there is a way to prevent them from firing at all?"

Sam looked at Liam, puzzled. Yes, it would be great, but the question was, "How?"

Liam smiled, turning to Sheppard. "Was it you who went on that one planet in Pegasus where there was a field preventing the use of any kind of technology?"

John thought about it. He did remember the system that created a field where no technology could work. It had been designed to protect the inhabitants from the Wraith. "I do remember, but if I'm not wrong, Rodney said the device worked only on that planet. Something to do with its specific magnetic field. So how does it help us here?"

"It helps us because I now know much more on the inner workings of the system than anyone else, and I can modify it to work on _any _planet granted I have the information needed about the planet's magnetic field."

Sam eyes widened, "Are you kidding? Are you saying that you can make a device that can envelope the entire Aschen planet and extend to envelope their satellite grid as well?"

"Not _one _device. There's no way I can make one device that powerful, but if I make a lot of them that are spread evenly throughout the entire surface of the planet, together they could envelope all the satellites. From the size of the Aschen homeworld and the distance of the satellites from the surface… I think a hundred and fifty, maybe two hundred just to be on the safe side of such devices could do the job. Of course, each device would need a pretty powerful power source, like maybe three micro-ZPMs each, to create a field large enough to reach the satellites in high orbit."

"And how long can such field stay active?" Sam asked.

"Maybe twenty, twenty five minutes, not longer."

"Well, twenty minutes is a lot if the satellites are completely offline, with no shields to protect them. Each hit could take one out. Still, we are talking about six hundred micro-ZPMs and two hundred devices. And we still need to find a way for them to reach the surface of the planet."

"True, it won't be easy, but it's definitely doable. Think about having two hundred cloaked missiles directed at Aschen Prime, evenly spread. I bet that the moment their detection grid detects them, they are already close enough to the atmosphere that we can activate them and let them proceed on inertia alone. And the moment they activate, no satellite will be able to fire either. We make them sturdy enough so they can make planetary reentry and survive the crash with the planet's surface."

"And then we immediately move with our fleet and start picking satellites from afar with our energy weapons and drones." Sam finished Liam's idea.

"Not drones. They are affected by the field the same way as any other tech, but energy weapons will work. Of course, our ships need to keep clear of the field too, so they can't get too close."

"So you too think it's doable?" Jack asked, after having listened to their discussion without saying a single word.

"I think it is," Sam asked. "How long do you think it will take you to make two hundred of those devices?"

"The construction of the devices is not difficult once I make the blueprints. A week, maybe two." Liam answered.

"So, in two weeks we can end the Aschen forever?" Jack asked, reluctant in believing it could be done. It was simply too good to be true. He received Liam's nod that for him was enough. "Teal'c, two weeks. You need to hold on for two more weeks. But you don't have to do it alone. With the Ori gone, I have a few ships I can send your way. I think I can send enough to give the Aschen pause, at least for a while."

"That would be appreciated, O'Neill. And once you build those devices we can coordinate our effort to neutralize the Aschen forever. If the Jaffa attack the Aschen's other strongholds, we can keep their ships busy while you take care of their homeworld."

"Good idea, Teal'c. If their ships are busy elsewhere we will only have to worry about the satellites, with no distractions," Jack replied, really liking where this conversation was leading. "Without the Ori and the Aschen, the Wraith and the Leptinians will be much easier to take out. Well, let's get to work then! We have a lot to plan."

* * *

… _later that evening _

Jack strode through Terrania's maze of corridors towards a rarely visited section. It was here the Level Five security vault was located. Here, the Terrans kept their most valuable and dangerous artifacts, and one of the only three full databases containing everything the Terrans had learned so far. The vault was completely isolated, and no known scanning method could even register the vault's existence, much less pry inside it.

Jack stopped in front of an ordinary wall, placing his right hand to the wall's right most side. A scanning process began, thoroughly checking the identity of the person in front of it. As it finished its scan, a holographic display popped up in front of him as if from nowhere. Jack inputted a lengthy sequence, and what only moments ago was an inconspicuous wall, suddenly began to open. As the wall fully opened, he proceeded inside, stepping into a large room with five doors, one on each of the walls. He walked in front of the left most door and repeated the authorization process, this time giving another personal code. The smaller door opened and he quickly stepped inside.

The room was different than the last time he'd been here. Now it had a control chair in the middle. He had given instruction this afternoon for one to be installed. He stepped behind the chair and in front of the opposite wall, the only one with a recess in its center. He took out the _box_ from the recess and went back to the rear of the chair. He put the box on the floor and attached it with the protruding chair's cable found there.

It was easier than connecting an xbox.

With only the slightest of hesitation, he proceeded to sit on the chair. The chair reclined, powered up, and part of Jack's mind suddenly shifted into a completely different world.

He found himself standing in a vast and bright expanse with only a glowing yellow orb in front of him. The orb had some inscription in the middle that Jack unfortunately couldn't read. The symbols were Alterran, he knew at least that much, and he wondered what was written on it. He thought how it would be great if he could understand what the inscription meant before proceeding any further.

_There _must_ be a way to translate it in English._

Suddenly, next to the floating orb, a window popped up. The window had something written on it, again in Alterran letters he didn't understand, but there were also two buttons in the bottom right corner. Jack understood. He wanted it translated in English, so the system intuitively showed a popup asking him if he was sure. And the two buttons, again with Alterran symbols on them were probably 'yes' and 'no' buttons. He touched the left button, what he thought the 'yes' button was. If it was the wrong button he could always repeat the process.

But before he could even finish the thought, the chair began glowing brighter. It was then that he felt a massive jolt surge into his mind. As the glow reseeded, the same way as it had started, Jack abruptly opened his eyes and jumped out of the chair as if a thousand volts had just gone through him. He turned to the chair with an accusing look. "I knew I would get screwed!" With his luck, the _real _question on the popup window must have been if he wanted the full download right away.

He didn't want to sit in the accursed chair again, but curiosity quickly got the best of him. He wanted to find out what had happened. He reluctantly sat back in the chair, again closing his eyes.

He was again in the vast and empty expanse, but now the popup window had something else written… and he understood the words. The popup was informing him the Alterran Language package had been successfully downloaded.

He immediately understood his mistake. Before thinking about a way to translate the inscription on the orb into English, he'd thought how good it would be to understand what it was written on it. And the system had asked him if he wanted the Alterran language downloaded into his mind, which he'd accepted.

He closed the window, and now in front of him stood the same orb, but he could now read what it was written on it.

_Scientia. _

Knowledge_._

He touched the orb, and the expanse was suddenly filled with endless orbs everywhere around him. He began reading the inscription on few. The orbs were separate categories in a way he still didn't understand, and there were so many. Too many.

_So, how am I supposed to find the Alterran training program?_

The orbs suddenly shifted position, with one orb stepping in front of all others.

_Ok, that was easy._

He touched the orb that immediately vanished, the same as all other orbs, and was replaced by a dozen others. He was in. These new orbs were subcategories inside the Alterran training program. He touched another orb, but this time, instead of different orbs appearing, a window with written text appeared in front of him. The window also had a button to close it, and another if he, instead of reading the content, wanted to download this section in its entirety.

He began reading.

In time, Jack would learn there was a distinct difference between reading the content and the download. The download didn't contain written knowledge. It contained the thoughts and experiences of the person who created this particular category, strictly restricted to the wanted knowledge. The download didn't give simple written data that needed subsequent interpretation. It rather gave the experience when something was discovered, built, and/or used for the first time. In time, Jack would begin using the download option with increased frequency, but for now, he restricted his browsing to written material the virtual construct, known as the Repository of Knowledge, actually had to interpret from the real memories of the author who had updated the Repository in order to describe them with written words, pictures, diagrams or even videos.

In time, he would also find the interactive portion of the system and begin using that one as well.

* * *

_**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated. **_


	30. The Prophecy

_**Author's note: **busy tomorrow, so managed to squeeze the chapter today somehow._

_**sarkosianlifeform: **Well, you're very close to what I envisioned with the Aschen. I'm not saying anything else._

_**Beyogi: **making satellites and making colony ships capable of transporting more than 15 billions people is not the same, but that is not the biggest problem. Evacuating their planet would also be a sign of defeat, and no matter where they go, they need to find a planet capable of sustaining 15 billions, and that is possible only with a very advanced infrastructure already on it. Plus, they would be much weaker than they are now, and their's no guarantee they wouldn't be found the next day, or month._

_**apocalyps24: **about the skip, it will happen at the end of this book. And as far as the Colonials are concerned, in the end the two stories will merge. Just don't know the exact details on how._

_**EvilTheLast: **last week was very productive, so I was able to post both, just as this week. No the Ashen are not the surrendering type, but the Terrans know that and they will react accordingly ;)_

_**drewc4000: **Yes, both will use it. It is just a question of how much. The other Jack will get scolded by Liam when he comes back from the Nox._

_**Trevor: **I'll try here to give you a short version. If you want the long version, send me a message as a logged user so I can reply through PM._

_On Terrania, everything is free. Of course that means food, a place to live, clothing, no need to pay the electric bill... So no reason for money, except when they need to go back home on Earth. Sheppard is the prime example of people who get pride from their work and wants a promotion not because it gives him more money but because it serves as a remainder he's doing a good job and because he can do more that way. Just the kind of people Terrania is trying to attract. Do you think Thor gets all giddy every first of the months when he gets his fat paycheck as Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet? Do you think he gets a paycheck at all? Or the Nox? Or Alterrans? I think our society is getting it wrong. In the last 50 years we've made a lot of advancements (increasing production, and easing overall management with new technologies), and yet today people work harder than they did 50 years ago to provide for their families. Something is definitely wrong here, or I don't understand what the point of advancing technologically serves for. And the Terran Alliance has the tech to create a sort of Utopian society where money doesn't mean anything. Just like the Nox, Asgard, Alterrans. But to do that it also means people need to change what they think is important in life, which is a slow and difficult process, but in the end only something that we were thought while growing up, nothing more._

_Everything the Terrans do for Earth goes through the representatives. If Langara wants to buy a Russian tank it must go through the Russian representative. The Terran Council does pretty much what they want without oversight, but the representatives of Earth still can give a vote of no confidence if the council screws up badly. But they can't do it without cause._

_Intelligence report coming at the end of this book._

_**Oddliver: **Yeah, or update the repository with all episodes of the Simpons._

_**duked: **That's... an odd thought. Liam is to the humans in the Ori galaxy an alien from another galaxy with no ties whatsoever. Why would he be responsible for them? Even if they wanted him too?_

_**Hope you'll like this chapter too**_

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Planet Riva**

Elizabeth Weir walked through the gate and stepped on the planet called Riva. Riva boasted a large population, numbering in several millions – at least large for Pegasus standards – which were led by a man named Dimas. The people of Riva were one of the three human races in the Coalition of Planets in Pegasus, the one with the biggest population.

The moment she stepped on the planet's soil, Weir noticed the jeep waiting for her mere meters in front of the gate and with a human she didn't recognize, waiting outside the jeep, next to the driving seat.

Moving at a fast pace, she quickly reached the jeep and the man awaiting her to take her to the several hours long drive destination. After a short conversation, she and the two Terran guards, always escorting her, jumped in the jeep. The driver, a native of the planet, turned the engine of the gifted jeep on and drove away from the gate.

The voyage had taken several hours, with the driver pushing the jeep through the tortuous terrain like a mad man – it was very difficult to call it a _road_ – to their intended destination. Weir could swear the Rivan was enjoying driving the car a little too much. After all, there was no rush, and she would rather reach her destination even half an hour later, but still in one piece, than by risking their lives the way they had done during the entire trip. But the driver had decided that fifty miles an hour with the jeep jumping up and down the whole time was all right for such road. She didn't share his opinion.

Weir was relieved when they finally reached their destination where she needed to meet with Larrin in their newly built complex. After the Terrans had finished repairing all of the Traveler's ships, they decide that, since now the Travelers had a place to stay, it would be better to help them build the needed infrastructure, in order for them to become self-sufficient, instead of simply building them the ships they'd promised them. If they did, the Travelers would still need them for any major repairs. Instead, with the newly built shipyard and the necessary production facilities, the Travelers could start building their own ships. The only thing they still needed to do themselves was to gather the necessary resources. They would need to mine them somewhere, but besides that, the production facilities and the shipyard with three slips, each capable of building the relatively small Travelers' ships, were fully functional. Of course the Terrans didn't give the Travelers the same energy based matter converters they used to build their ships or these facilities, such technology was kept as a close secret, but for the rest, the facilities were state of the art, with refineries, foundries and components manufacturing facilities needed to build the separate elements of a fully functioning ship.

As Weir jumped out of the jeep, she took a good look at the complex. She could see the different facilities stretching for a good mile in both directions, and the three slips were already filled with the initial frames of the still incomplete ships. It would still take a few months, maybe even three, but apparently the Travelers were not wasting any time. And the Travelers were not only producing components for their ships either. She knew they were producing tools for the Rivans, who were providing the necessary work force the Travelers were lacking in return. There were only thirty thousand Travelers, and most of them were busy manning their constantly growing fleet, which meant they needed more people to man the factories, shipyards and the mines, wherever those were. She didn't know that last one.

While she was looking at the complex, she noticed Larrin walking in her direction. She decided to meet her half way.

"Doctor Weir," Larrin said the moment they drew closer.

"Please Larrin, I told you last time we saw each other to call me Elizabeth. Nice to see you again by the way."

"The same here, _Elizabeth_," Larrin said, while quickly glancing at the jeep. She frowned, slightly concerned, "Why isn't Sheppard with you? I heard that people have returned from the higher plane?"

"Don't worry. He's back safe and sound, but he's still on Earth. I haven't seen him either," Elizabeth replied, knowing why Larrin sounded concerned. Not all people have returned from the higher plane, and everybody knew, or at least suspected, what the reason for that was.

"Oh, okay then. As long as he's back. Is that annoying scientist you have also back?" Larrin asked. He couldn't stand the man, but she knew the scientist was a good person and apparently very competent at his work.

"Yes, he's back too. Only few Terrans that were infected by the Wraith retrovirus and ascended haven't returned."

"Well, I hope they succeeded in doing whatever they were taken to do."

"Oh, they did. The Ori are all dead. We don't have direct knowledge of what transpired in the higher plane, but all indications tell us we don't have to worry about them anymore."

"Good to hear. I wasn't very happy when you explained to me what the Ori wanted from us mere humans, much less the reason why they wanted it."

"Me neither," Elizabeth replied. "So, what's the reason you wanted me here with such urgency? Is something wrong with the shipyard or one of the other facilities?"

"No, no. Everything is fine in that regard. All facilities are at one hundred percent. Actually the only problem we are having is finding competent people to man more than one full shift, but we are working on it," Larrin explained. "Come! I'll show you why I called you here."

"All right. Lead the way."

Larrin and Weir, trailed by Weir's personal guards, made their way inside one of the nearby buildings, taking some stairs to the third floor.

"I called you here because I need your opinion on something we found on a planet we've recently visited," Larrin began explaining while leading the way inside a small room. "We went to the planet in question because we knew of an animal that lives there. We wanted to take several specimens and bring them back here to see if they can survive on Riva too. If they can, they would be a great source of food since they are incredibly docile, herbivore, and they need only two years to achieve full maturity. Their meat tastes great too."

"So, I guess you found more on that planet that you've planned for."

"You guessed right," Larrin said, the same moment as she stepped near one of the metallic tables in the room and uncovered a corpse lying on it. "This is what we found on the planet."

Weir looked at the corpse, wishing Larrin had warned her before uncovering it. What was lying on the table was definitely one of those ugly Wraith grunts, but even at first glance, Weir was able to notice there was something strange about it. It definitely wasn't human, but his skin also wasn't of the usual _Wraith-_green color. And the thing didn't wear a mask, which made it look even uglier than usual, _if_ that was even possible.

"What is that thing?" Elizabeth asked.

"That is why I called you here. We don't know," Larrin said, taking the corpse's hand. "And look at this."

Weir looked at the turned wraith's palm, and noticed it didn't have its usual feeding organ. That was definitely puzzling. "That's new. So far, we haven't seen anything like it."

"As I said, neither have we," Larrin replied. "The strangest thing is that the planet I told you about doesn't have a stargate, or at least we haven't found one. As far as we know, the only way to reach its surface is by ship."

"So, the question is, how did this thing get on the planet? Have you scanned the planet to see if there are more of them? Or maybe if there was a Wraith structure present?"

"Not thoroughly, no. The captain of the ship performed a quick scan of the surrounding area and found nothing, but he also rushed the mission from the moment he found this thing. He left the place very quickly. It is still ingrained in our people that any evidence of Wraith being nearby is a sign to leave… _quickly!"_

"Well, I can't fault your captain for wanting to leave. If there was a Hive there, one of your ships alone couldn't compete with that."

"Still, I think further investigation in the matter is required. I don't have any idea what this thing is, but not doing anything and hoping the Wraith won't resurface in Pegasus isn't an option."

"You're right. This could be nothing to worry about, but it could also be something possibly dangerous. Now the only problem is that I don't know if we have a ship free to go check it out."

Larrin gave her a questioning look, "You don't have a ship to check it out! How is that possible?"

"Well, it's not as if we don't have enough ships. The problem is that the majority has been relocated in the Milky Way galaxy in order to fight the Aschen, Leptinians and Wraith there. The council's hell bent on cleaning them up quickly now that the Ori are gone. What remains of the Second Fleet here in Pegasus is under strict orders to stay put in Asura's orbit."

"Why? I thought your planetary defenses were formidable."

"They are, as far as I know they are impenetrable, but another race has recently emerged in the Andromeda galaxy and has everyone spooked. I don't have a lot of information about the race because the Council is keeping whatever they know on a tight leash, but apparently they are very powerful. And apparently they are the reason why my people have been building so many shipyards and warships in the last three years or so."

"Do you intentionally go around the universe looking for enemies or what? I haven't heard of any race with so many enemies bent on destroying them like you do. In less than ten years you pissed off half the universe!"

"I fully agree. But I must say that since the Ancestors left, this region of space has become a wild one. So, not completely our fault… except the Ori… that _was_ our fault," Weir explained, slightly lost in thought. She shook her head. "Also, from what I gather, this new enemy is a complete puzzle, and not somebody we invited. No one knows who they are. The only thing we know is that they'd enslaved a race the Guardians have met, and that through a neural interface, they were controlling them to do their bidding."

"That's not very nice. Hope they won't come in this galaxy and that you'll be able to stop them if they do," Larrin replied, not liking what she was hearing. "But, returning to our previous conversation, I think I have a solution."

"You do?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well, since you were so kind to give us a full load of those Asuran drones to refill the Aurora, I think we can take her with a small escort and check the planet out on our own. Now that we have the factories to build what we need, we were also able to build more of the weapons we are using on our other ships and mount them as secondary weapons on the Aurora. We are grateful you gave us the drones, but we can't rely on you giving us drones we can't produce every time we exhaust them. And without them the Aurora is unarmed and completely useless in any engagement."

"Good, I think you're being smart not to rely on something you can't produce on your own."

"We thought the same. By the way, why _do_ you call them _Asuran_ drones? Aren't the same as the drones the Ancestors built?"

"They aren't. The drones production facility on Asura is building them with a slightly larger tolerance threshold," Weir explained, noticing the puzzled expression on Larrin. "But it's nothing to worry. The only difference is that we were able to exploit a weakness the process creates by changing our shields so it is more difficult for them to go through them. But as far as Wraith ships go, or any other race that doesn't have the same modifications to their shields available, they work the same."

"That's actually smart. I mean, giving us drones that you know how to stop from harming your ships."

"Well, that's why the military didn't protest about giving them to you," Weir replied, before returning to their previous discussion. "Look, if you have the ships and if you're confident you can safely go check the planet out, I'm far from against it. But what if you need to deploy people on the ground to check the planet? We can lend you a few teams if you want."

Larrin smiled, "Come with me."

Weir nodded and followed Larrin through the entire complex. They exited on the other side where Weir found something she didn't expect. The Travelers had a training camp, and people were even at the moment having drills. "Now I know why you wanted the blueprints for those Intars."

"Yup. Before we allied ourselves with the Rivans, we mostly spent our time in space. We only went on the surface of a planet if we needed to collect food or trade with the locals, and we did so by landing our space ships in order to do it. Now things are changing, and we must change too. With the ring technology you provided us with, and with the ability to build smaller craft so that we don't have to land our ships every time, we are spending more and more time on the ground and by visiting other planets. And we need to protect our people when we do, so we need more than a few people barely knowing how to hold a gun."

Elizabeth listened to what Larrin was telling her and understood the Travelers were definitely changing. Although, while watching their people doing drills in the distance, she also noticed from their clothing that some of them actually weren't Travelers, but Rivans. "And what about the Rivans?"

"They are Rivans, but not for long. Those are people who have asked to join the Travelers. We are training them the same as our people. We are also teaching them how to operate our ships because, frankly, we need more people. With our fleet expanding and all, we need more people to operate everything. Plus a lot of our people have begun spending more and more time on the surface here on Riva so we are in desperate need for hands to construct something we can call a settlement."

"Is this maybe the first step to merge with the Rivans?"

"Possibly. We still don't know where this is going exactly, but we did become good friends."

"And what about the other human races in the coalition? What about the Lathirans and the People of Senthal?"

"Well, it's not like we are not on good terms, but we also haven't become exactly friends. We tried, but they are too… _different_. Their culture I mean. The People of Santhal are… um… almost tribal, if you know what I mean. They have their customs, rules and rituals, and every time we don't follow their customs to the letter, they take offense. We are very open people – you have to be when you share a small space like a space ship your entire life and if you want to prevent any possibly dangerous misunderstandings – but the Santhal are not. And the Lathirans somehow remind us of the Genii. They are not bad people, far from it, but their strict, almost military rules is very different from how we do things. We also have the feeling the Lathirans made the alliance just for the benefits. They never even considered the possibility that we may become friends, but rather as a necessity in order to keep the Genii at bay. And that doesn't sit well with my people."

Elizabeth understood. She was all for respecting other customs, but they too needed to tolerate others' differences. The lack of strict customs in the Travelers didn't mean the People of Santhal had the right to impose _their_ customs, much less take offense if the Travelers didn't follow them religiously. In a way, the easy going and open Traveler's stile, with the lack of written in stone customs, was a custom in itself. "I understand, and I also agree. If you feel more comfortable with the Rivans than with the other races in the coalition, by all means, explore your relationship and if it leads to the unification of your people, then even better. I think your people can benefit from one another. But do you think there will be a buildup of animosities inside your coalition?"

"I would like to be able to tell you that it won't, but we are already seeing some indication the other races are not that happy about how close we have grown with the Rivans. And it's true that the Rivans are advancing more than the other races because of it, but I don't know if there's anything we can do about it, or that we even want to do anything about it for that matter."

Elizabeth didn't know either if there was something they could or should do, but she did fear what could be the result of it. Usually when one party felt left out, they'd start looking in different directions, which in the case of the Pegasus galaxy meant they would probably turn to the Genii if they felt _too_ left out. Not that she had an answer how to solve it, and in the last few years she didn't have anything against the Genii either, at least not in term of witnessed bad behavior, but she still didn't like them. There was something about the Genii that gave her a bad feeling, and in her book anything that could increase the Genii's influence in the galaxy was a bad thing too; one that needed to be stopped if possible.

But again, the diplomat in her knew that if they tried to interfere, it was possible the only result they would achieve would be to push them exactly in the direction of the Genii. In the end, she was of the opinion that letting things unravel on their own was probably the best thing to do. In a way, she was more and more of the opinion that the Terrans should take the role similar to the one the Lanteans had taken so long ago. The Alterrans had taught them not to interfere with other human races and to also keep their interaction to a minimum. At least until some race reached the level where they could be thought as peers, maybe lesser peers, but peers nonetheless. The Lanteans had been the overseers of the galaxy, not the rulers of others. And she also had the increasing feeling that alliances rarely worked between races on different stages in both their social and technological levels.

"Well, Larrin, I'm glad I came here, and I definitely like what I'm seeing. But now I need to get back to Asura. Keep me informed of anything you find on that planet. I really want to know what that thing was. Can you also send the corpse to Asura once your people are done examining it?"

"No problem. Oh! And tell Sheppard he's an ass for never coming to visit as he promised," Larrin said. "He doesn't have to have an official reason to come here."

"I'll tell him. I think he'll be back in Pegasus in a few days," Elizabeth replied, not having any intention to actually tell him anything of the sort.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy – Unknown Location**

"I am sorry, but it had to be done," Freya answered, meekly.

Njoror was fuming inside. It is a miracle he had survived for so long with so many _traitors_ so close to him. The first had been his dear friend Kvasir during the Aesir/Vanir war, and that one had cost him and the Vanir exile from Ida into Pegasus. And now Freya, his _daughter _no less, had betrayed him by calling her brother and letting him know where their secret base was.

"You have betrayed me. You have betrayed the Vanir," Njoror said, depressed.

"I rather think of it as having saved the Vanir," Freya replied. "You know as well as I do, there was no escape. The Aesir are canvasing the galaxy and it was only a matter of time before they found us on their own. And we can't fight them. They are more powerful now than ever before. By us being the initiator of our surrender, we can at least expect some leniency."

"You do realize you used the word surrender in your sentence. And why would they need to show any leniency? And even if they do, for some mysterious reason I cannot yet fathom, do you believe we will receive the same from the Terrans… _or_ Alterrans. They are not the kind that forgives and much less forgets, and since the Asgard were their apprentices before becoming peers, they will take our behavior as their failure as teachers." Njoror explained the problem, shaking his head slowly. "A failure they will want to correct."

Freya's eyes widened. It was true the Alterrans were not the forgiving type, and the Vanir having used humans, their creation, for their experiments, would definitely not sit well with them. The Terrans' reaction was also something to fear. She didn't know them well enough to make a judgment, but such a primitive race tends to lash in anger at those who wronged them. And yet, she was certain she'd done the right thing by having called her brother Freyr, the moment she'd detected his personal ID code inside a communiqué inside Pegasus. "How long do you believe it would have taken them to find us? For months we have detected their ships in this area. A few more months and there would be no system left they wouldn't have probed. And they wouldn't have been fooled like the Terrans have been. Especially not now that they know we are behind the Gray Aliens."

Njoror knew Freya was right, but it didn't mean that surrender was the only option at their disposal. They could have fought them. They could have used their creation, the Gray Aliens to fight them. Not that he had much hope they would win in the end, but they could at least postpone the inevitable. The Vanir's technology had actually regressed in the last ten thousand years because of the Wraith, and the few scans they were able to make on Kvasir's ship had shown how powerful the Aesir have become.

Njoror's thoughts were interrupted as the console in front of him started beeping. Their sensors had just detected a massive hyperspace window. From the window, four ships exploded into n-space, three the same as Kvasir's and one even more massive.

_Great! Kvasir's ship wasn't even the strongest they have._

In front to Njoror, the large view screen came to life showing the face of Freyr. _"This is Freyr, member of the Asgard High Council, please respond."_

Njoror glanced at Freya, shaking his head again. He then proceeded to enable a two way communication, before replying to Freyr, "Hello Freyr, you look well."

"_Hello father. It has been a long time since we last saw each other."_

"That it has. Not that I would have minded for even more time before meeting you… or any other _Aesir _again," Njoror replied.

Freya walked next to her father, giving him a disapproving glare. She then turned towards the viewer. "Nice to see you brother. Don't mind father. He's just not happy how things have turned out, but I am certain he will change his mind… in time."

"Understandable under the circumstances," Freyr replied.

Freya again looked at Njoror, seeing he wasn't about to speak. She shook her head. He was a very stubborn Vanir, that was for certain. She then turned back, "How do you want to proceed?"

"If you lower you stealth system, we will beam you and father aboard our ship. After that, we will proceed to Asura where we will have a long discussion."

"Why Asura?"

"So that the Terrans can be present as well."

"Why do the Terrans need to be present?" Freya asked after a moment of hesitation.

"You know why. This matter cannot be solved internally. The Terrans, and probably Liam, the Alterran, must be involved in the discussion as well."

_This_ wasn't something she liked to hear. "I understand. Disabling stealth system now."

As she disengaged the stealth system, she and Njoror were whisked away by the Asgard beaming system aboard the Valhalla. While the three O'Neill ships remained stationary in the system, the Valhalla sped into hyperspace. It would be a short trip to Asura.

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy - Asura **

Inside the conference room, Freyr, Thor, Freya and Njoror were seated around the table, waiting. Only moments later, Weir stormed inside the room, taking a seat.

"Sorry you had to wait, but it took me some time to try and track down Liam," Weir explained.

"Is he coming?" Thor asked.

"No, he's not. He's busy on Heliopolis, something to do with him having to talk to the Nox. But he gave us the go ahead to solve this without him. He said he'll back any decision we make," Weir replied.

Freyr nodded, grateful. It was a sign of trust to allow the Asgard to come to a satisfactory solution to the Vanir problem without him present. He knew they'd screwed up badly when they'd let the Vanir escape and continue with their experiments, and he'd feared the Alterran wouldn't have liked it and even have a few words to say about it. But if Liam was confident they alone can come to a satisfactory solution, it meant his fear wasn't founded in reality after all.

"Very well," Freyr said, turning to face the culprits. "Let us first hear what they have to say in their defense. I would also like for them to explain their relation with the Gray Aliens."

"There is nothing to say," Njoror began, clearly angry. "We did what we did to save our race. Everything else is history."

Freya wanted to punch her father straight in the face, but she would probably injure herself in the process. Her father had a thick skull, in more ways than one. Maybe she should be the one to start. "I apologize for my father's behavior. I am not certain what you know, so I will start from the beginning."

Freyr nodded. "That would be best. Please proceed."

"After the war between our people ended, we traveled to the Pegasus galaxy where we colonized several planets and started to build our infrastructure. This was 72 years before the emergence of the Wraith menace. These 72 years we spent building our new civilization in hiding from the Lanteans. We did not want to have any contacts with them, mostly because of the reason why we came to this galaxy. Sporadically, we would take some human individuals that showed some advanced genetic markers we thought could help us in finding a cure for our degenerative disease. The humans would be taken from their worlds and while we conducted experiments on them, a clone would be placed on the planet with the same memories implanted. Once the experiments on the subject ended, we would return him on the planet."

"What about the clone?" Thor asked. No matter that he or she was only a clone, they were still living beings, and not something you can dispose of.

"Clones would be then transported to a world without a stargate and given enough food to survive."

"Very well. Please proceed."

"Once the Wraith race surfaced, the war that enveloped most of the galaxy started. We thought the Lanteans would be able to win the war against the Wraith easily, so we waited, not showing our presence, but we soon realized the Wraith were a better foe than we thought," she explained, not wanting to add that she actually thought the Lanteans were possibly the worst warriors _ever_, and that in her opinion, they were the reason why they lost rather than the Wraith having been too powerful. "Unfortunately, the Lanteans had lost the war and the Wraith turned against other races in the galaxy. They would simply not allow any space capable race to exist.

"For a time, we were able to fight them, but, with each passing day, we were slowly losing more and more ground. It seemed as there was no end to the Wraith. Once we realized the Wraith would eventually win, we started a plan in which we would hide on an uninhabitable planet the Wraith hopefully would never look on. We were fortunate in that case, although it cost us every intergalactic ship we had to construct the needed infrastructure to survive on the gaseous planet you found us today. After that we continued with our experiments during the Wraith's hibernation times. They usually lasted for a hundred years or even longer, followed by five to ten years of great activity. This lasted for ten thousand years.

"As far as the Gray Aliens are concerned, we found them more than a hundred years ago, after the last Wraith feeding cycle. They were a primitive race on the outskirt of the Pegasus galaxy, with no stargate on their planet and never having been visited by the Wraith. We knew they would sooner or later have been discovered by the Wraith, in which case their race would have been annihilated.

"We came to the decision to try and make an alliance with them. They were not… very intelligent, but they are physically strong, which we are not. We thought, if we could uplift them during the Wraith sleeping cycle and if we gave them the means to build a strong enough fleet, they could not only be able to defend themselves, but also be able to win a war against the Wraith. The Wraith had become weaker during the ten thousand years, because, without a threat like the Lanteans, their numbers had greatly diminished. If we were able to build a fleet strong enough to face them, and if we were able to target strategic Wraith strongholds during their long sleeping cycle at once, we really believed the Wraith menace could have been defeated. That was at least until, the Terrans arrived and woke up the Wraith."

"What of the Neural Interface the Gray Aliens use? Autopsy showed their intelligence has been greatly increased through artificial means. And the device is clearly of Asgard design."

"The Gray Aliens were not intelligent enough to understand the intricacies of the situation, or the intelligence necessary to uplift them to any useful level. They simply could not understand what we were trying to teach them. Which is why we used the neural interface to make them smarter."

"Did you do so without their permission? Or understanding?" Thor asked. Asgard laws forbade uplifting a race above what their natural abilities would allow, but if they did it also without their permission, that would be much worse.

"No, we did not. We asked, and we explained. They agreed," Freya answered.

"What about the attack on the Terran space station?" Freyr asked.

Freya turned to face her father, again having the urge to punch him, but she didn't. Instead she turned to face her brother before replying. "We knew little of the Terrans at that point. We did not know they were allies of the Aesir, much less of the Alterrans. What we knew was that the Terrans were starting to place satellites over human populated worlds, and _some of us_ believed there was no other choice but to openly attack them and force them to leave the galaxy. With the satellites in orbit of human planets, there was no possibility of continuing with our experiments."

"I see," Thor replied. "Is that all?"

"That is all," Freya answered.

"From what I have just heard, you have broken many Asgard laws. Among those the worst are experimentation on unaware human beings, kidnapping, unauthorized cloning on unwilling subjects, dereliction of duty, having uplifted a race beyond their natural means, and lastly you have openly attacked a Terran outpost, causing several fatalities," Thor said, shaking his head. It could not get much worse.

"What dereliction of duty?" Njoror finally spoke.

"You did not help the Lanteans in the war against the Wraith. They were the heirs of the Alterrans, the ones which had been tasked with safeguarding this galaxy. As allies of the Alterrans you were obligated to provide aid to their heirs."

"They were not our allies. We were not obligated to help them. And you will not find any law that obligates us to help the _heirs_ of the Alterrans. If they were Alterrans, and they had been attacked, then yes, but not the Lanteans," Njoror countered.

Thor again shook his head. "The Alterrans taught us better than to simply read the written words on a defense treaty. They taught us to look for the spirit of the signed document, and of friendship. Just because when we signed our mutual defense treaty with the Alterrans, there was no mention of their heirs because such possibility wasn't envisioned at the time, it does not mean you can disregard your duty to come to the aid of their heirs, which the Lanteans were. If the Alterrans had followed your example and didn't come to _our_ aid when we fought the K'lar in Ida, _before_ we signed any defense treaty, our ancestors would have been wiped out. We have a great debt to repay to the Alterrans and not only because of the K'lar war, and the least you could have done was to help the Lanteans when they needed it. Also, you should have realized at the time that, with your help, the chances of the Lanteans winning over the Wraith would have been greatly increased. And yet, you stayed hidden and watched the Lanteans, and the rest of the humans, being… _eaten_. As I said, the Alterrans taught us better than that."

Njoror didn't have anything to say. What _could_ he say? They were guilty, he even more than other Vanir were, and in more ways than one. "So, what now?"

"That is a good question?" Thor replied, letting silence befall.

If the Vanir could sweat, they would have started doing so - _profusely!_ - right now.

"Will you withhold the cure?" Freya asked.

Thor looked at her, and waited. "No. Even prisoners get the best medical care possible," Thor replied, also letting them know that the possibility of them spending the next best thing to a thousand years in prison wasn't off the table. "You will be given stable bodies, although those won't be the same as those we currently have at our disposal." Thor turned to look at Freyr. He knew this wasn't easy for him, especially since the culprits were, among others, his father and sister. Also the fact that Freyr had been, once upon a time, the leader of the Vanir, before the war started, was not helping.

Freyr nodded to Thor. "Thor is right. You will be given the first stage body. The other stages you will have to earn. And it will take a long time to do it, of that you can be certain."

"Yes, and there is also the matter of what the Terrans think what a fitting punishment should be."

Well, at this point, Freya was certain they were as good as dead. Or at least they would spend the rest of their existence in a very small and dark room. This was actually the thing she feared the most. "Oy."

Weir was not sure. She listened to what had been said in the room, and she didn't know what to do. From what she understood, the Terrans had been wronged the most. Only Terrans had actually died as a direct result of the Vanir's actions, those Terrans who had defended Babylon One. And yet, what _was_ the right punishment in such circumstances? From what she knew, there were maybe a few thousands Vanir still in existence, and imprisonment for a longer period of time wouldn't do any good to anyone. She actually didn't know what a life sentence in prison meant to an immortal race. And having spent thousands of years practically imprisoned on a toxic planet sounded like punishment enough. Still, some kind of accountability for their misdeeds had to exist.

"I will have to consult with our council; I can't decide on my own. However, my recommendation to the Council will be for the Vanir to remain in Pegasus and right the wrongs they have committed. They have failed to aid the Lanteans in time of need, and because of it, many in Pegasus have suffered for it, and for a very long time. I believe it would be fitting for the Vanir to change that now that they can."

Thor wasn't sure if he understood. "You think the Vanir needs to remain in Pegasus and protect the humans here, the same way as they should have done ten thousand years ago? But there is no race here that needs protecting from?"

"There isn't now. And even that is disputable."

"Has something transpired that we are not aware of?" Thor asked, not liking the answer he got.

"Yesterday I was called by Larrin, one of the Travelers. They have found a Wraith on a planet without a stargate, and the wraith in question has been genetically modified. It doesn't have Wraith feeding organs, and the fact that it was found on a planet without stargate makes me believe it came with a ship. And since they found no ship, it means it wasn't alone."

"Did you interrogate him?" Thor asked.

"He was dead. The corpse was no more than a day's old."

Thor didn't like it. Every evidence showed all Wraith had departed for the Milky Way galaxy, and he knew those haven't been genetically modified, which meant there was a good chance of an offshoot resurfacing in Pegasus, and one without the need to feed on humans at that. No matter how repugnant the thought of a species having to feed on another sentient species by sucking their live force, Thor was of the opinion that their feeding need was actually a hindrance and not an advantage. Wraith that didn't need to feed on humans but still capable of _growing_ their infrastructure quickly was of great concern. "I see. This could be of great concern. Have something been done in that regard?"

"The Travelers are sending a Task Force to the planet to see if there are more clues there. This situation, with only a single Wraith found dead on a deserted planet, doesn't sound right to me somehow."

"No it doesn't," Thor replied. He then turned to Freyr. "What do you think about her proposal?"

"It does sound… _fitting_." Freyr answered. "We as well will have to talk to the rest of the Council before we can give a final answer."

Njoror mentally sighed. "We do not have the strength. Our infrastructure is almost nonexistent, and we only have a few small ships; hardly something capable of opposing any foe, much less someone as powerful as the Wraith."

Thor turned to face Njoror. It must be humiliating for him to have to explain how weak they were. _Good!_

"Maybe we can help change that," he said, turning towards Freyr and seeing his puzzled look, "What do you think about giving the Vanir the Beliskners we have no use for?"

"That… could work. How many of them do we still have?"

"I know of six unmanned in Orilla's orbit. There could be more still in use. Not many, but at least a few."

Freyr turned to face her sister, "We can give you six Beliskners, maybe a few more later, granted you accept your new obligations towards the humans in this galaxy. You can use those ships to rebuild on a planet of your choosing, one that is not toxic. You will also not be allowed to leave this galaxy for the foreseeable future, and I am certain the Council will find other ways for you to prove yourselves before you will be allowed reintegration into Asgard society. And only then you will be given the clone bodies the Asgard are now using."

"We agree," Freya replied without thinking twice.

Njoror looked at her annoyed. He was the leader of the Vanir, and not her. Still, there was not much else he could do than to accept whatever terms the Aesir decide to impart on them. Reluctantly, "I agree as well."

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Heliopolis**

Liam strode purposefully through the large halls of the even larger complex on Heliopolis. He was on his way to the Nox's portion of the complex. He needed to speak with Lya.

He reached the transportation booth that would transport him into the forest where the Nox spent most of their time while on Heliopolis. They had an entire section with buildings on them, but they rarely spent more than the minimum time needed in them, just like they spent little time in their flying cities. They would go back into the forest any chance they got.

As the booth transported him on the fringe of the Nox's forest, he proceeded deeper into it on foot for a little over half a mile before stumbling in front of a suddenly appearing Lya.

Lya didn't say anything. She just stood in front of him, looking at him from head to toe with curiosity and amusement. "I see."

"Why haven't you told me what this was all about?" Liam asked accusingly, not even bothering for any small talk.

Lya sighed disapprovingly. Liam was forgetting his manners, again, and impatience wasn't a viable excuse. "Hello, Liam. Nice to see you."

"Sorry, Lya. Nice to see you too. How are you?"

"I'm well, thank you for asking," Lya replied with a smile. She wasn't fooled.

"Good! I'm glad! So, why haven't you told me?" Liam blurted out.

"It wasn't for me to tell. And if you know what we are referring to, then you also know why as well. It is your journey, and yours alone," Lya replied calmly.

"Still, it could have helped me if I knew," Liam said, still a little pissed, but not as much as he was when he came here.

"No, it wouldn't have. And you know the path is as important as the goal is, or maybe even more so."

"Well, we will have to disagree on that; at least in this case. Can you at least _now_ tell me what you know?" Liam asked, impatience dripping out of him.

"Yes, I can, but not if you continue behaving like a child. Impatience doesn't become you."

Liam took a deep breath. At this point, he could literally strangle her. She was right though. He needed to calm down. He sat on the ground crossing his legs, an action which Lya mimicked as well. He closed his eyes and began taking deep breaths, trying to find his center. It took a few minutes before he opened his eyes again. "Satisfied?"

"Definitely an improvement. Still, you must never forget about you center, especially not now."

"You are right. So, can we now talk before I start losing it again?"

"What do you want to know?"

"For one, the real reason why the Nox decided to descend. From the moment we met, I had the feeling that it is somehow related to what is happening to me."

Without hesitation - and probably for the first time in Nox's history - she began giving a straight answer. "The Nox decided to descend because of the prophecy."

"Prophecy? What kind of prophecy?"

"During our time as ascended beings, long before your kind even reached the Milky Way galaxy, we found evidence of a prophecy embedded in the fabric of the universe that spans through space and time. It was present everywhere, and its existence defied anything we knew about the universe."

"Defied how?"

"It exists everywhere in the universe and in any _time_, without ever changing."

"What?"

"A signal travels, always. It never persists in the same place. The prophecy is contained in that 'signal', if that is even the right word for it, seemingly from the beginning of time itself, and it doesn't dissipate."

"Seemingly?"

"Yes, seemingly. Although only an unproven theory, we the Nox do not believe the 'signal' originated at the beginning of time. We think it originates in _any_ time, the past, present and future, and in any place."

Liam thought about it. He didn't have a clue how that was possible. "How is this possible?"

"As far as we know, it isn't. And yet…" Lya replied, letting the thought trail off.

"Okay, that's _weird_. So, what does the prophecy say?" Liam asked, sensing his impatience threatening to surge forth again.

"That is difficult to explain. The reason for that is because to learn what the prophecy says, someone needs to first compose it and then decrypt it, and to do so, someone needs to listen to the signal in different places spread throughout the entire universe. You see, the signal changes based on where you are, and we believe that to know the entire content of the prophecy, someone needs to search the entire universe, possibly every galaxy there is."

"That's ridiculous! No one can visit each and every galaxy in the universe, even if he has a hundred lifetimes at his disposal," Liam protested.

"True. Even someone _immortal_ would have his work cut out for him," Lya replied. "But there is more. What we know is that you don't have to visit every galaxy there is to _start_ decrypting the prophecy. And it also doesn't matter in which region you start listening,"

"What? How?" Liam asked. The more he listened, less he understood.

"Think of it this way. Let us say that you listen for the signal in three neighboring galaxies. This is enough to decrypt the first piece of the prophecy. But what you decrypt, it also gives you another piece you can't understand. Then you do the same with three other galaxies, which gives you the same first part of the prophecy as in the first case, but the piece you can't decrypt in this case is different. You do this a third time and you get again the same message, but you also get a third _different_ piece, which gives you the three pieces you need to get the second part of the prophecy from the nine galaxies you visited. To get the third piece, you now need to visit eighteen more galaxies, to have a total of twenty seven to compose the third piece. Then 81, 243, 729, 2187 and so on. So, as you can see, no matter where you start in the universe you will decrypt pieces always in the same sequence."

"So, the more you visit, more of the prophecy is unraveled. Is that it?"

"Exactly."

"So, why did the Nox descend after decrypting what's probably a _very_ small portion of it?"

"The first reason is, as you have probably already guessed, that, after thirteen iterations, you are already well above a million galaxies you need to visit if you want to get the next piece. The second reason is that after so many galaxies we visited in our time, we started to stumble on a few races, ascended races, that didn't want us intruding into their territory. And the last reason is that we thought we had enough to make a decision.

"The prophecy talks about evolution. It talks about the evolution of the species in _this_ plane of existence and their eventual ability to ascend to a higher plane."

"Okay, that part we know already, and it's something we have already achieved, so can we..."

"No."

"What do you mean with no?"

"No because the prophecy talks about _false_ planes construed as necessary steps to progress further in order to achieve a greater understanding. You see, the prophecy _warns_ about something that would be thought as one of possibly many necessary steps while in reality they are nothing more than traps. But this is something that you already understood, even without having heard the prophecy. I think that this understanding is the reason, or at least part of the reason, why you decided to return to the mortal plane."

Liam remained silent for a long time. It was true. While ascended, he always felt of the higher plane as something that prevented him from achieving something more. It was great living in the higher plane. It gave him the ability to understand things he never could have as a mortal, but he also felt that, in the almost five million years spent in the higher plane, he didn't make any real progress. It was this feeling that made him eventually decide to return to the mortal plane.

And now that Lya had mentioned it, he could also understand how it could be conceived as a trap. It was incredibly difficult to leave an immortal plane that gave you so much freedom and understanding, to return to the mortal plane; to return in the _mortal_ plane. No matter that the Alterran physiology had reached a stage where they could live indefinitely, he was well aware that was only theoretically possible, but never yet achieved. He for one didn't know of any Alterran who had lived for more than ten thousand years, if even that much. And if you added that there was no guarantee that you could ascend again, returning to the mortal plane could in the end be a death sentence.

"So, the higher plane is a trap, is that it?"

"We believe so, yes."

"And you decided to leave the higher plane because of it?"

"We did."

"But, why haven't my people then?"

"We don't know how much of the prophecy they know, or if they even know it exists. Our knowledge of it was collected over millions of years in which time my kind, both while in this plane and in the higher plane, traveled the universe to collect as much of the prophecy as possible. And we still believe we know only a small portion of it. From what I know, we stopped searching the moment we found other hostile ascended beings that stopped us from going any further. We didn't want to go to war because of the prophecy, so we decided we have collected enough and returned here in our home galaxy and descended back into the mortal plane."

"Huh! That's screwed up. I mean, higher planes being _designed_ traps."

"Maybe, but now it is my time to ask questions," Lya said, grinning. "Even now I can detect your body shifting. You are in some kind of flux."

"I'm not sure if I'll be able to give you any satisfying answer. I'm not sure what's happening to me, at all."

"Well, start at the beginning. Tell me how it started."

"I was in the Ori galaxy, and needed to access some knowledge I knew was buried somewhere deep into my subconscious. I went into deep meditation and I was able to access it, but not in the way I expected."

"No?"

"Not even remotely!" Liam replied, remembering the moment when it happened. "I wanted to _search_ my subconscious for the knowledge, and instead my mind was _flooded._"

"Flooded?"

"Yes, It was like a dam suddenly broke in my head, and everything I ever knew as an ascended came rushing back at me. I couldn't process that amount of information, no matter how much I tried to concentrate on a specific memory, and I guess my body reacted in the only way it could in order to prevent damage. I went into a coma that lasted almost two days. When I came out of it, I was somehow able to access what I learned as an ascended, _with this_ constant flux continuing. There are still pieces more difficult to access, but I think in time there will be nothing of my previous knowledge I can't access."

Lya remained pensive trying to process everything she had been told. "So, we were wrong."

"Wrong? In what way?"

"The Nox took the prophecy's warning too literally and believed the higher plane was a luring trap that needs to be avoided at all cost. But now I believe that the higher plane is both, a trap and a necessary step. If someone remains in the higher plane, the higher plane becomes a trap for him. But without stepping into the higher plane, one cannot achieve the next level. You _need _to become an ascended being and then come back, the same way as you did. You couldn't have achieved the next step without having spent at least some time as an ascended being. Maybe my ancestors should have collected more of the prophecy before deciding to descend."

Liam looked at a frowning Lya. She looked a tiny bit pissed too. "Possible. I really don't know. But…"

It was then that Lya turned into a glowing being. "Thank you, Liam." She said before disappearing.

"What the fuck!" Liam blurted. He could still feel her, but not in the mortal plane.

"Center, Liam. Keep you center, always… and your _manners_," Lya's scolding voice was heard, apparently coming from nowhere.

"Sorry, Lya," Liam replied, shrugging.

He sighed. She didn't tell him the _prophetic_ portion of the prophecy. And he knew there has to be one, because, if there wasn't, Lya wouldn't have called it as such. He had more questions now than he had before coming. And he really thought this time a conversation with a Nox would have ended up differently.

What a fool he was.

* * *

**_Please leave a review. They're always appreciated._**


	31. First Contact

**Author's note: **_This chapter came out a little weird. After having spread the story in six galaxies - and left it that way for a very long time – I think the time has come to start unraveling it. And because of it, this chapter will jump through many galaxies. It wasn't my initial intention when I started writing it, but it somehow turned out this way. Well, what's done is done. Hope the chapter didn't turn out too bad._

* * *

**Pegasus Galaxy**

Closely shadowed by three smaller Traveler's ships, the Aurora class warship reverted from hyperspace into n-space near a habitable planet, the same the Travelers had visited only days ago and where they'd found the dead Wraith hybrid. Quickly proceeding into planetary orbit, the group of four ships made their way exactly above the ground where the hybrid was found. Quickly, powerful active scanners from the Aurora began searching the ground beneath for any evidence that could shed some light on how the hybrid had arrived on the planet's surface.

"Do we have anything yet?" Larrin asked another crewmember.

"No, Larrin. I'm scanning every meter in a two hundred kilometers radius, and there's nothing of interest. Even more than that, only a kilometer from where the hybrid was found, there's a massive mountain range, with very tortuous terrain. I don't think that I even have to search in that direction. And south of it, there's nothing except some animals wandering around. I'm not detecting any emissions that would indicate some kind of technology present on the surface either."

Larrin got up from her seat and walked near the other crewmember. He began watching the images on the large display in front of her, quickly coming to the same conclusion as the crewmember did.

Or almost.

"What can you tell me about that mountain just north of where we found the hybrid?"

"Nothing. It's just a mountain. What are you thinking here?"

"Well, sometimes we use caves to hide stuff we don't want cramping our ships. If they are deep enough, it is usually safer to use natural hiding places than trying to use some dampening field to conceal something, especially since advanced sensors are usually calibrated for detecting such fields. And the Wraith know the Terrans have very good sensors, which means there is a chance they went the opposite way."

"You think, instead of using a dampening field as the Wraith usually do, they used a deep enough cave that blocks the scanners?"

"Yeah. That's exactly what I'm thinking."

"Well, if that's the case, I can't help you with that. You'll need to have boots on the ground and search the surrounding area from the surface, and not from above."

Larrin frowned. It was still not ingrained in the Travelers to go look for trouble, much less when it was on the surface of a planet. And yet, it was exactly what she needed to do. She took the obligation to check the planet out and there was no going back on her word now.

"I know." Larrin was already moving out of the bridge. "I'm going down with a team. You keep watch for anything suspicious while we're down there."

"Will do," the crewman replied.

* * *

Larrin and four other Travelers moved through the dense and untouched-by-humans forest. They'd had to land a few miles away from the place where they'd stumbled on the dead wraith corpse and the voyage was slow, lasting almost an hour. And that was making her very nervous. If there was something dangerous down there, they wouldn't be able to quickly leave the planet. Or, in the case the Wraith decided to show up with a ship, they wouldn't be able to return in time to flee.

Cutting branch after branch, the group finally got through the thickest portion of the forest and neared the mountain range, exactly north of where they found the grunt's corpse. Following the steep side of the mountain for a few hundred meters, one of the Travelers noticed a cave's entrance. It wasn't a very large opening, maybe 10 feet wide, and the only thing they could see inside was darkness. Knowing that this was definitely the place where they needed to go, they entered inside with only a moment of hesitation.

Using flashlights they'd brought with them, the group preceded deeper and deeper inside, all thinking that stumbling upon a bear's lair would be the best that could happen to them. It would mean there wasn't anything else inside, and in the Travelers book a bear's lair trumped a wraith's lair every time.

As usual, luck was _not_ on their side, as no trace of a bear ever having lived here was found. Instead, the cave suddenly widened considerably and there _were_ wraith consoles placed everywhere inside in an almost random fashion. The dark cave, only illuminated by their flashlights, suddenly became even spookier. Even though they all believed that there must be a way to turn on the lights in this dark and ominous place, no one wanted to touch any of the wraith consoles present. If one thing was certain was that by touching something, they could inadvertently trigger some alarm.

The positive side of the situation they were in was that, apparently, there were no wraith alive wandering the cave. It looked completely abandoned and powered down. But as appearances can sometimes be deceiving, as they were soon to find out, they in fact were not alone.

Following a bending in the cave's system, they all noticed some lights coming from an adjacent chamber. Entering inside, they found out the illumination was caused by the many cocoons littering the walls of this section of the cave, casting an eerie green light.

"So, I don't think there's any doubt anymore aboutwhere that wraith we found came from," Larrin stated, still searching with her flashlight the chamber.

"No, there isn't. What do you think this is?" another member of the team asked.

"Lab? Cloning facility? Who knows," Larrin replied. "The good thing is that no Wraith is awake and wandering around. But the question now is, what do we do with this discovery?"

"We blow it up?" the same team member replied, with a hopeful grin.

"Yeah, the same idea crossed my mind too, but this way we destroy only this lab, and we still don't know who's the owner. Whoever is responsible for this is bound to return, sooner or later."

"So what, we wait?"

"No, I'm not planning on spending more time on this planet that we need to, but if we place explosives and proximity sensors, whoever made this will be the one to trigger the explosion, which means he'll die too when it happens."

"Except that we don't know if more of these cocoons will open and let some of the occupants out before anyone comes back to check this place."

"True, but even in that case, the proximity sensors will trigger the explosion. We won't get whoever made this place, but it will still serve to blow up the place."

"We can always access some console to see if we can find something interesting. Maybe even the information of who made this place."

"No, too risky. Everything we touch can trigger an alarm. It is also possible that this place has already been booby-trapped and ready to explode if somebody touches something that shouldn't be touched. And I'm not risking that. Do we have enough explosives?"

"Yes… on the craft we landed with."

Larrin shrugged. At least an hour to get there, an hour to get back, another to place the explosives and yet another to return to the craft and leave. At least four hours. She didn't look forward to it. "Alright, let's get back."

While the group of Travelers reluctantly went back to the craft knowing that they still needed to return, in a distant star system, aboard a wraith cruiser, Michael had just received the signal that one of his labs had been discovered. He wished that he had spent some time placing explosives in his labs, but since he had placed them on planets with no stargate and inside caves, deep enough to protect the labs' locations from orbital scanning, he hadn't anticipated they would ever be discovered. And he still didn't know how this one was. The Terrans were everywhere, with their satellite system monitoring a large portion of the habitable planets in the galaxy, but even they didn't have enough of them to monitor the entire galaxy and every planet inside it. And by limiting his travel, especially in the regions where the labs were, he had minimized the chance of them picking any trail that would lead them there. In fact, he hadn't traveler to that specific lab in more than a year.

Michael sighed. He could go and check it out. Maybe a stranded animal wandered inside the cave and triggered the silent alarm. But if he went there and instead of a stranded cow he found a Terran fleet, his plans would be even more at risk, and he was far from ready at this point. He needed more time, maybe even as long as a year to finish with all the preparations necessary before he could show the galaxy at large that he was still here. He had so much to still research and build before being ready to act.

_No, I'll leave the lab to its faith and write it off. There's no information in it that can lead to me or to any of the other labs. I won't make the same mistake the other Wraith always do and think I'm ready when I'm not._

Michael moved away from the comm. console that had received the warning. He still had so much work to do.

* * *

**Furling Galaxy - Cidonia**

Soren watched the floating city in the distance from the balcony in his office, located in the central tower of the settlement they'd built on the surface of the planet. While letting the breeze gently ruffle his hair and while enjoying the warmth of a typical sunny day on this very foreign planet, his thoughts wandered to his birth planet, Eden Prime. They were lucky as far as finding a nice planet was concerned in this dubbed Furling galaxy, but it still wasn't Eden. No planet could ever be as Eden, and after more than a year away, he was starting to feel nostalgic, more so since they weren't doing much of anything useful these days.

Having understood that their mission cannot continue without the Beacon – the one still somewhere in one of the satellite galaxies circling the Milky Way, the previous home of the Furlings – he had focused all his effort on the war with the pesky Sanarians. And pesky they were, _very_, having become a painful thorn in their foot. Even with the help of the other races that apparently had enough of them as well, the Sanarians had proven to be difficult to deal with. He thought they would be more _reasonable_, if that was the correct word to use, and quickly understand that they were facing an impossible foe, but he soon realized their beliefs were too strong for them to think rationally. The Edenians have become their mortal enemy now, and they were bent to win this war or perish while trying.

Not a smart decision if someone asked him.

But the Sanarians were not the only problem he was having. He was having a much bigger problem he didn't really know how to solve.

Soren shook his head, putting a small, sad smile. It was his fault. He should have known better. He'd made the biggest mistakes of them all. If you don't learn from your past mistakes, you're bound to repeat them, and he'd done exactly that. It wasn't a fluke the Alterrans _never _made alliances on the spur of the moment. The Alterrans had understood – by making such mistakes before – that a long period of time was needed before forming an alliance with another race. The first step should always be to get to know them, _thoroughly_, before formalizing an alliance. You never rushed in such matters, you never bonded with another race just because there was a certain need, and definitely not before making sure they were what they were claiming to be. And the fact that there was a war on the horizon should have made him be even more cautious, and not less.

The N'gati. A race seemingly peaceful and with beliefs close to those the Alterrans cherished. The perfect candidate to make an alliance, but if he had waited, as he should have, he would have found out that wasn't the truth. Not even close. Instead, they turned out to be slimy and scummy son of bitches. From the moment one of their warships had been destroyed, he knew something was not right. He could feel it in his bones.

The first clue was the fact that there hadn't been any distress signal sent from their ship prior to the attack, which suggested a complete surprise attack. And he couldn't find a way how the Sanarians could have accomplished an ambush in the void of space without the ship detecting their approach. They had the technology to detect _any _ship approaching still light years away. The second clue that something wasn't right was the lack of any evidence when they'd inspected the few remains, which would indicate that whoever did it, had stayed long enough to clear any trace of their involvement. And from what the N'Gati told them, they were very quick to arrive on the scene, which meant the Sanarians wouldn't have had the time to clean up everything so thoroughly. And the third problem was that, the more he learned about the Sanarians, more he was convinced that they were not the type to hide their deeds. They would have boasted about having been able to destroy one of their ships, and it definitely wasn't a secret the Sanarians wanted them gone. So why, even if they had the necessary time to do it, why would they clean any evidence pointing in their direction?

All this clues were nagging at him and telling him that something else had happened there. And his instincts were even telling him exactly _what_ had happened and who the real culprit was, but somehow he didn't listen to his instincts, pushing those thoughts aside and rationalizing that there hadn't been any real evidence to support his theory and that the only thing he can base his decisions was the N'gati's account of the incident, and with that knowledge finally close the investigation.

But the nagging feeling that something wasn't right didn't subside. On the contrary, it grew so much he couldn't let it go. He'd needed to find out what had really happened that day. He'd needed to make sure. And that's exactly what he'd done.

During the inspection of one tiny piece of the destroyed ship's hull, he was able to find trace amounts of radiation, radiation that could only have been caused by weapons fire. And that radiation could not have come from any Sanarian weapon, for he knew_ exactly _the radiological composition of all of their weapons. They had collected plenty of evidence in that department.

So, the Sanarians weren't the culprits of such vile act, which meant somebody else was. And there was only one other race that had been in any position to do it. The N'Gati.

Subsequent comparison of the weapons systems aboard the N'Gati ships with the radiological emissions found on that small piece of hull, showed that their weapon, as opposed to the weapon used by the Sanarians, _could _have done it. It wasn't conclusive, since they had witnessed other races using similar weapons, but even this circumstantial evidence was enough for him to know that they had done it.

And they were now their allies.

The problem now, that he still wasn't certain on how to solve, was what to do with them. One part of him wanted nothing more than to beat the crap out of them and damn the consequences, but another, the more coolheaded part thought differently. He knew that the moment he made his move against the N'gati, their alliance – which had a dozen other races in it – would dissolve into nothingness like a bubble of soap. And they needed the alliance to stand if they wanted to effectively fight and eventually win against the Sanarians.

It was this dilemma that was preventing him from having any more meetings with the other races, knowing that the N'Gati would be present. Frankly, he didn't trust himself around them. He was of the opinion that, if he saw an N'Gati smile while rubbing their hands almost insect-like, the way they usually did, he would jump across the table and beat the alien senselessly.

There was yet another problem, something he wasn't sure about. Knowing that the N'Gati were guilty wasn't in question anymore, he was sure they were, but he didn't know to what extent. It was possible that the N'Gati ship did it without the blessing of their government, in which case, beating the crap out of a clueless N'Gati ambassador would definitely be the wrong thing to do. On the other hand, if he exposed the truth to the N'Gati, they could easily put all the blame to the ship's captain alone, even if their government was in it from the beginning. And he didn't like the thought of the N'Gati getting away with it by just punishing a captain and his crew when they'd only followed orders from above.

Soren sighed, frustrated. He knew what he needed to do, he knew what the right thing was, but it was risky and it could possibly have devastating consequences for the alliance. The solution was to find the whole truth before exposing it in full to the N'Gati, and there was only one way he knew of on how to accomplish that goal. He needed to find the ship that did the vile deed, and capture it. Interrogation of the captain and the crew in front of a lie detector would give him what he needed to conclusively know not only _if _the N'Gati were guilty – he was sure of _that _already – but also if the captain of the ship acted alone or if orders had come from higher above. Finding the ship, wouldn't be such a problem, since he knew the IFF codes of the ship that had been there when their ship had been destroyed. Finding the ship when it was alone would definitely be more difficult, but not impossible. If he could find it while without support, he was confident he could board it and capture it quickly enough that no other ship would even receive their distress signal. With the Alterrans' jamming and cloaking capabilities, he was certain they could ambush them without too much trouble. And from what he knew of the N'Gati, their shock troops could seize the ship with little resistance.

_Yes! That's exactly what I'm going to do! And once I find the whole truth, the N'Gati will _pay,_ and damn the consequences! Besides, if push comes to shove, we can deal with the_ _Sanarians even alone, without anyone's help. It will take more time, but it can be done. Of that I'm sure. And there's a chance the other races, if informed of the N'Gati's treachery, can still retain their membership in the alliance while kicking the N'Gati out._

Soren turned, and walked briskly out of the balcony. He needed to talk to Nolan and get this mission on its way.

* * *

**Senari Galaxy**

Mial watched through the frontal view as the bluish background of hyperspace changed into the blackness of n-space. Slightly on the left of their current course, a blue planet could be seen through the frontal view. This was the fourth planet they'd visited in the last month, all as an attempt to gather as many followers to their cause.

Mial was grateful to the Guardians, and to Liam. From the moment they'd released the nanites, they've been nothing but helpful, and he knew they had problems of their own back home to worry about. He knew there were other hostile races threatening them, and yet, they had diverted a considerable portion of their fleet to the effort of freeing the Senari people. He also knew they were not that happy about the Senari who had attacked the Vargas station and, by doing so, probably had alerted the Vargas of their rebellion.

Mial heard the sudden beeping coming from a console in front of him. The captain, standing to his right, immediately asked what it was and the crewmember replied there was an unknown ship near the planet. As the frontal view zoomed in on the unidentified ship, a cold chill went down his spine. He knew how his people had described the Vargas' ships, and even though he'd never seen one in his life, he was most than certain that what he was seeing now was just that, a Vargas ship. The report the Guardians had received about a ship smashing through their defenses in the Andromeda galaxy, only accentuated his suspicions. There must have been more than one ship coming from the central anomaly and it must have stayed in this galaxy.

His feelings of dread were only augmented when he saw small stars burst forth from the ship and went straight down to the planet's surface.

'_Noooo!' _He heard himself screaming. He knew exactly what those bright stars were.

The following blasts clearly visible on the surface of the planet confirmed his fears. The Vargas were bombarding the defenseless planet, slaughtering all those people living down there.

"Helm, plot an intercept course, full thrust! Shields to maximum and bring all weapons online," the captain ordered.

The ship lurched forward on a least time intercept course with the offending ship that was indiscriminately bombarding the planet. As the Seraphim class battleship gained speed, the Vargas ship turned to face it. The ship was at least twenty percent longer than the Guardian's battleship, and its manta-like configuration was making it much wider.

As the distance quickly came bellow max weapons range, the battleship opened with all its baryon particle beams, hitting the enemy ship in full and making its shield flare brightly. The ship returned fire in kind, firing some strange red energy bolts, almost perfectly rounded, and with a dark core.

The bridge slightly shook.

"Shield status?" the Captain asked.

"Minimal drain on our shields. No structural damage to the hull," the tactical officer replied.

"What about them?"

"I'm detecting fluctuations in their shield matrix. I believe we can-" the tactical officer stopped in mid-sentence.

"What is it?"

"I'm detecting a strange drain on our shields."

"They are firing on us. Of course our shields are draining."

"No, the drain persists even when they are not hitting us. Their weapon somehow has a cumulative effect on our shield's matrix and it's disrupting it even when they are not hitting us."

"What? How is that possible?" the Captain replied. It was one of those stupid questions that you just had to ask, and the captain realized it. "It doesn't matter. Evasive pattern gamma and keep firing at them. How long will our shields hold this way?"

The tactical officer began crunching some numbers. It was difficult to calculate since every new hit would change the equation, but even before getting some hard numbers back, the officer knew it wasn't good. "If they continue hitting us with the same intensity, a few minutes, maybe three at the most.

"On the next pass, fire drones," the captain ordered.

As the ship made another big loop around the almost immobile Vargas ship, a stream of golden drones exited the Seraphim class battleship. The drones quickly proceeded towards their target. As they reached the ship, they passed through the ship's shields without impediment, only to be stop by the ship's armor. Newly fired particle beams hit the Vargas ship as well, making its still active shield glow brightly.

"Sir, our drones went through their shields, but they were stopped by their armor."

"What about their shield status?" the captain asked.

"Their energy matrix is weakening, but I can't be curtain how long until it loses cohesion and collapses."

"Stop firing drones, divert backup power to our energy weapons and focus them on a single point. And prepare the antimatter torpedoes to be launched the moment their shield collapses."

"Yes, sir."

"How are our shields holding up?"

"Just dropped below fifty percent, sir. I've refined the estimated time of collapse. One minute and fifteen seconds until total collapse."

The captain didn't like it. They could leave before their shields collapsed, but the Vargas would then resume bombardment of the planet. As he thought of what his options were, the ship shook again, this time stronger than before. "What was that?"

"Their weapons are starting to bleed through our weakened shields. And it will only get worse."

As the battleship fired from its six beams at a single point on the Vargas ship, the shields blocked the tremendous pressure exerted on them, but for only an instant before the beams sliced through. The six beams hit the underlying armor, but unable to go through it.

"Sir, our weapons were unable to pierce their armor. I'm detecting micro-fractures in their armor plating, but it will take a lot more hits in the same place to pierce through."

"Launch antimatter torpedoes," the captain ordered almost before the tactical officer ended his sentence, and the same instant as another hit shook the ship once more, this time even more violently than before."

"Torpedoes launched, sir," the tactical officer replied.

"Sir, we have breaches on deck ten through twelve, and deck fifteen. Emergency forcefields have sealed off the areas, but we've lost two beam weapons on our starboard side," another officer replied almost at the same moment. He was the one responsible for damage control.

As the fired missiles reached their intended target, new suns blossomed in the darkness of space, completely hiding the entire Vargas ship from sight and sensors. As the massive explosions ranging in hundreds of megatons slowly vanished, the intact Vargas ship became once again visible.

"Oh, for the love of…" the captain yelped as he saw the enemy ship still intact. They were already taking massive damage and the Vargas ship looked as if nothing could harm it. If they took a few more hits, their shields would collapse completely and he was sure his ship wasn't about to survive hits the same way as the Vargas ship has done thus far.

"Sir, their armor is capable of bleeding off the energy of our weapons with only minor damage, but their weapon emplacements can't. Our torpedoes were able to melt almost all of their weapons on their port side."

"Launch drones! Target weapon systems only." Maybe there _was _a way to damage that beast after all.

Fresh drones were launched in droves, spreading towards several different targets like branches of a tree. As they hit the weapons' emplacements, small explosions erupted on the, by now, _very-much-hated-by-all_ enemy ship.

"It worked sir. All port side weapons have been destroyed, and only twenty percent of those on the starboard side are still operational."

While the tactical officer was explaining the situation to his captain, the Vargas ship was already rolling, clearly trying to impose its starboard side with a few still working weapons emplacements there.

"Launch more drones. We need to destroy those before they finish rolling their ship."

"Sir we don't have any more drones."

"Then launch more torpedoes and use our energy beams on those weapons."

More torpedoes were launched as well as four beams of concentrated fire, but not before the enemy ship finished rolling and fired from its remaining weapons. The Seraphim battleships port side blew as several blasts hit the ship's armor. From that side, explosive decompression blew pieces of the ship as well as people into the vacuum of space. The ship staggered, slowly continuing drifting through space without power.

On the bridge, an explosion blew in the rear. Power momentarily went down, only to come back the next instant.

"Status!"

The tactical officer worked frantically on his flickering console, trying to get some information back on what had happened to their ship. "Sir, we are on backup power. All systems except life support are offline. Repair crews are already working on it. I'm attempting to reinitialize our sensor systems."

It took a good minute before the frontal view came back to life, showing the Vargas ship in front of them. At least it looked as if the Vargas ship was disabled too, but their hull looked mostly undamaged. That was until the ship slowly turned on its axis, showing its aft side. One of the torpedoes must have blown their rear engines and there was visible damage there. Still, it looked the Vargas ship was in better overall shape, which could also mean they would be able to repair it sooner than they could.

And that would be _very_ bad.

"I want assault teams ready for boarding," the captain ordered. Since he was certain the Vargas could repair their ship faster than they could, it meant they needed to find a way to prevent them from succeeding, and the only way he knew of on how, with a fully disabled ship, was to put soldiers inside their ship and sabotage it from the inside.

The tactical officer looked puzzled for a moment, "Yes sir. Already on it."

Ten minutes later, four puddle jumpers exited the damaged Seraphim class battleship. They proceeded quickly, reaching their target in a little over ten minutes, as a consequence of the ships having drifted apart after the battle had ended. A quick survey found several hatches on the ship's hull that the soldiers inside the puddle jumpers intended to use in order to infiltrate the unknown vessel.

Exiting into vacuum, the armed and armored guardians proceeded to breach inside. Using plasma torches capable of creating thousands of degrees hot plasma, the hatches were in short order pried open on several points evenly spread around the starboard side of the ship.

The interior of the ship looked definitely alien to the people comprising the various boarding parties. Halls were vast, at least four meters wide and tall, and everything was of the same metallic silver color.

Alpha team was proceeding towards what they hoped was the rear of the ship and where they hoped to find the engine room. This was definitely the central corridor of the ship, and if the aliens weren't _too_ alien, a central corridor usually connected very important places aboard a ship. As the four guardians made their way through the corridor, they quickly came to a bifurcation, both paths looking identical. Not knowing which one was a better choice, they chose to split. The two corridors looked as if they were slightly curved, probably leading to the same place, but they couldn't be certain, and time was of the essence.

Illia and Hannah moved slowly, with their particle rifles pointing forward at all times. As they made it half way through the bifurcation, what they believed to be a sliding door opened only meters in front and to their right. From the now opened door, an alien walked out. The alien was more than two meters tall, lean, naked… and almost the same color as the corridor; a metallic silver color, with only the eyes being of a burning red.

The speed with which the alien moved once he saw them, was blinding. Illia had managed to fire only one shot, a shot that had harmlessly spread on the surface of the alien almost as if it had been slowly absorbed, before the _thing_ reached him and punched him with incredible strength. Illia flew several meters through the air before crashing hard on the floor. Hannah fired too, but the result was the same. No harm had come to the alien. The backhand that followed sent Hannah crashing into the wall behind her.

Illia, with the enhancements of his crisis looking suit, got up in an instant and moved with blinding speed toward the alien. Before the alien could strike at Hannah again, Illia punched the alien with all the augmented strength his suit allowed him, straight in the jaw. It had been exactly like punching a metallic wall. The thing did stagger backwards, but it should have flown meters at the very least. Instead it looked as if the alien had only been angered even more.

The alien pushed forward, towards Illia, placing a hand on his chest. The alien's hand began to glow before a strange wave spread forth. Illia hadn't been pushed back, but he felt the wave somehow going through his armor and body. He staggered backward, before slumping to the floor. He could only sense intense plain, result of massive internal damage throughout his upper body, even though his suit had remained intact.

Energy weapons didn't work and a punch augmented by their suit only succeeded in enraging the alien. So Hannah took out her molecular blade and with all the strength she could muster she thrust the blade in the back of the alien's skull. The blade went through and through, exiting through the alien's left eye. The alien quickly moved, staggering left and right, but still on his feet. It then dropped on the floor, hopefully dead. If it survived a blade straight through the head, Hannah would have retired on the spot.

Or died in the next minute or so.

Hannah moved quickly next to Illia, "Are you hurt!" She asked, but there was no answer coming from her teammate lying on the floor. She connected to Illia's suit, quickly receiving his vital signs. He was unconscious with severe damage to his upper body, and the damage was almost entirely internal. It looked as if the wave had created internal micro-fractures. The suit had already injected healing nanites in an attempt to stabilize him and maybe even repair some of the damage. From the readings Hannah was receiving, she had no doubt Illia would have already been dead if it weren't for the nanites. She then lifted Ilia on her shoulder and quickly moved back toward the extraction point. She mentally instructed her suit to send the recordings of their fight to the other teams on the ship. They needed to know.

Meanwhile, the other two members were luckier. They hadn't stumbled upon any alien and they were able to enter a room with several consoles inside it. Rolan was already working on the console, trying to access it. They hadn't been able to find the engine room, but he would at least try to access the ship's systems and see if he could retrieve some useful data. Knowing what they were up against was probably even more important than destroying the ship.

It took several minutes of trial and error before a translucent holographic display sprang to life, scrolling some data on it.

Rolan looked at the data scrolling, before turning to face Kelor, his teammate, with a puzzled expression.

"What?" Kalor asked.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Rolan asked.

"I'm seeing a lot of symbols I can't read. What are you seeing?"

"I'm seeing the same - I can't read them either - but this isn't the first time I see these symbols."

"It isn't?"

"No, it isn't. I can't be a hundred percent certain, but I think these are Goa'uld symbols."

"What are you talking about? How can Goa'uld symbols be here on a Vargas ship?"

"That, I think, is a very good and probably a very important question."

"Well, that's weird, for sure. Can you download anything so we can check it later?"

"My suit is trying to connect directly to the terminal, but it's having trouble with their protocols. Wait! Here it goes," Rolan explaimed as his suit finished the handshake protocol. "Crap! My suit is telling me it will take an hour to download everything."

"We don't have an hour."

"Uhm, no need to worry about that."

"Why?"

"The system just kicked me out. Somehow it detected I wasn't authorized to access that data."

"_Charges have been set. Fall back to the extraction points," _the voice came through their comm. units.

Rolan and Kalor nodded to each other, immediately beginning a hastened retreat. There was not a lot they could do here anyway.

Moving through the same bifurcation they came, they quickly stumbled into Hannah.

"Where are you going?"

"I just left Ilia at the extraction point. I'm going back to take a souvenir. Coming?"

"Sure," both teammates replied.

It took less than a minute to reach the place where Hannah and Ilia had fought the alien. Without waiting, Hannah grabbed the alien on the ground, put it on her shoulder and began her trek back toward the puddle jumper, trailed closely by her two teammates.

Four puddle jumpers flew away from the large Vargas ship and toward the damaged battleship. The difference was that the battleship was by now at least capable of using its thrusters to stabilize their course. The moment the puddle jumpers began entering the hangar bay, one after the other, several explosions erupted inside the Vargas ship. It was amazing. The ten megaton charges, placed in several locations aboard the starboard side of the ship, had blown the inside of the ships, but the ship was still, by the most part, in one piece. Those charges would have outright blown apart any other ship, maybe even a full blown wraith hive. Still, there was no way that ship was going to move on its own power ever again.

They had won the battle, barely, and with dire consequences for many member of the battleship's crew, and it would take another ship to tow them away since the damage was too great to be repaired here. But the information they'd collected would prove to be invaluable, or at the very least it would give them some clues on what they were up against.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania**

"So, not very useful then," Jack stated as he walked beside Liam through one of the corridors on Terrania.

"No, not useful at all, but the worst part is that, time and time again, I always expect that the next time I talk with a Nox, the conversation will go differently. I actually believed that, _this _time, I'd get a straight answer to a simple question. And it almost worked too. Almost," Liam replied, frustrated. He had always suspected the Nox knew much more than they were letting others believe.

Jack watched Liam and the frustrated expression he was putting, but then it suddenly changed in a mischievous grin. "What?"

Liam looked at Jack, not sure if to tell him. "Oh, nothing. I just remembered something, something that I now know and that must be making the ascended bursting into flames in anger."

"So, what is it? Oh, come on. You have to spill it now. You know that I like stuff like this, especially if it is something that's pissing off the ascended."

"Alright, fine," Liam said, finally giving in. "As you know, once I returned from the Ori galaxy, and got out of that two days' coma, I was able to remember a lot more of what I once knew while ascended, and that knowledge is growing with each passing day. Anyway, what I remembered, and what I'm sure my ascended brethren would definitely like for me to forget, is about a very old plan of theirs. A sort of backup in case the Ori won."

"It sounds interesting. Go on."

"Well, I remembered about a plan the Elders devised, and the key to it is something they've called Clava Tessara Infinitas."

Liam and Jack were both Alterrans with very keen senses, capable of detecting anyone's approach from afar. So, the only explanation that they could come up with to what had happened next was that Daniel had found some new form of teleportation that enabled someone to jump from point to point at will without making any sound or without the usual visual effects of an Asgard beaming. It was simply impossible that Daniel had managed to just appear next to them so fast.

"Did someone say Clava Thessara Infinitas?" Daniel asked, startling both of them.

"Daniel! Where did you come from?" Jack asked.

"You're both standing in front of my office."

Jack looked slightly behind and to his right and saw that, indeed, they had just passed Daniel's office, "Oh, Okay then. Still… it was a mighty quick approach."

"Sure, sure. So, what was that about the key to infinite treasure?" Daniel asked, impatiently.

Liam shook his head, still thinking how quickly Daniel joined them. "It is the ascended backup plan in the case the Ori won. Five millions years ago, we the ascended Alterrans knew that the war with the Ori was inevitable and that it was only a matter of _when_ it will happen. So, the elders devised a plan on how to save ourselves. They found a star system drifting between galaxies - it had been blown away from the Milky Way galaxy and wandered in the void of space. What the Elders decided to do was to create a pocket universe and push the entire star system in it. Now, the most important point of the plan, in order for it to work, was that the pocket universe doesn't have a higher plane, which means that only someone from the mortal plane can enter inside."

"So that the Ori cannot enter," Jack added thoughtfully. "But that also means that no ascended Alterran can either."

"True, but you see, this was a last ditch plan, only to be used if there was no other option available. In that eventuality, all Alterrans would have descended back into the mortal plane and entered the pocket dimension. As far as I know, the star system is a binary one with a dozen habitable planet in it, so a lot of room inside."

"It does sound like a good backup plan," Daniel began saying. "But I still don't quite understand the Thessara Infinitas part."

Liam smiled. "Well, that's because you don't know what the ascended put inside the system before shifting it into the pocket universe. They collected as much resources as they could, and also created a massive construct capable of holding a lot of the knowledge the ascended had collected up until that moment. Of course, that construct could probably hold only a small amount of everything the ascended knew, but it is far more than anything anyone else in the mortal plane has collected or could ever hope to collect _while_ in the mortal plane. Furthermore, to complete the project, one ascended returned into the mortal realm and transferred his consciousness into a VI core while his body was put into stasis, which means he has spent five million years inside that pocket universe _building stuff and continuing research_. I think his name was Armus, but not really sure about that, and thus far no one knows what he has created in the five million years inside that pocket universe, but one of his prime directives was to find means to oppose the Ori, with the pocket universe as a base of operations to launch a possible counter attack."

Daniel's agape mouth was enough of an answer for what he thought about this, as anything else could have possibly had been.

Jack was as well trying to think what an Alterran consciousness inside a VI Core, could have possibly created in that time while having a lot of the ascended knowledge readily available to him. "I got nothing. I can't even imagine what he could have accomplished in a fraction of that time."

"To tell you the truth, neither can I," Liam stated.

"So, where is it?" Daniel asked.

"Well, that's the problem. I was able to remember about it, but I'm still unable to access the knowledge of where it is or where the key to enter inside is hidden. Someone, that we shall not name at this point, must have put a lot of effort to push that particular knowledge very deep into my subconscious. It is one of those few memories that still elude me. _When_ I'm going to remember it all, I don't really know. But there's another question that is now bothering me," Liam said, giving Daniel a scrutinizing eye. "How do you know about it?"

"Me? Oh well that's easy," Daniel said storming back into his office, and coming back out with a black tablet and a strange pendant with some gate symbols on it. He gave them to Liam. "Because of these."

Liam eyes widened it shock. "How is this possible? There shouldn't be any reference of it in the mortal plane. It was always a purely ascended project, and they would have _never_ left…" Liam was rumbling, but stopped as he remembered something. "Oh, now I remember. _I_ did it. I knew the others would make sure I could never access any memories with anything related to the Clava Thessara Infinitas once I descended, so I left clues. He-he, it appears _I'm_ the one who broke the rules." As he finished his sentence, he began looking around, trying to sense if there were ascended beings floating anywhere near them. Thankfully, there weren't.

"So, do these clues help?" Daniel asked, eagerly.

Liam looked at them, first reading the tablet and then scrutinizing the rounded pendant, frowning, "Maybe… not sure yet. But I'm certain it will come back to me, I'm sure of it. Just don't know when."

"The tablet and the pendant didn't help me much. And they didn't help Vala or Athena either. At one point I maybe thought that those symbols on the pendant were for a specific gate address or something. I thought it needed more than seven or eight chevrons, like nine or even more." Daniel said, rumbling. During the time he had spent trying to find out what the pendant was for, he had come up with an enormous amount of stupid theories.

"No, a nine chevrons address is used for something else, and we never did anything that needed ten or more chevrons to connect," Liam said still thoughtful about what the pendant was for… and also not noticing the strange looks he was receiving from the other two people in the hallway.

"Well?" Jack asked, slightly impatient.

"Nope, I got nothing," Liam replied. "I simply can't remember."

"Not that! The other thing!" Daniel shouted, frustrated as well.

"What other thing?" Liam asked. What were these two talking about?

"The nine chevron address! That's what!"

"Oh that. There's a gate address that connects to a space ship my people sent through space on a mission of exploration. It was a very long time ago, even before I was born, and I don't believe the ship's still in one piece, not after so many _millions_ of years."

"That's too bad," Jack said. "It sounded interesting. A ship sent to travel billions of light years over such a long period of time. It's kinda difficult to picture it, especially when I think about my car having started to break down after less than five years. Hey! Maybe we should start making cars for Earth. You know, maybe with a sticker on them saying – _thousand years guaranteed to work_!"

"Yeah, it does sounds strange that with all the tech we're giving to Earth, cars still break down the same way as they did before."

"Okay, if the two of you are not done talking about cars, I'm going back to Andromeda. I have work to do there anyway," Liam said, but the other two didn't pay much attention to him.

"It is not the tech that's the problem, Daniel! Even before cars could have been made to last. But where's the money in that. Get it?"

"Yeah, I do. I just hope things would change _faster_ on Earth and for the better," Daniel replied.

"Yeah, I do know," Jack replied, then turning and looking around. "Hey, where did Liam go?"

Daniel looked around, he as well not having a clue. "Don't know. Hey! He took the tablet and the pendant."

"Well, they are kinda his."

"I know. I just don't like losing artifacts."

"I know, Daniel. That's why your office looks like it does. The same as half the storage rooms on Terrania you filled with stuff you find."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Daniel, when it comes to ancient artifacts, you are a real hoarder. You have your office full of _pieces _of pottery. Not just the entire things, you also collect _pieces_."

"So what? They are important."

"Sure they are. So much that you weren't ready to give a seven thousand years old clay vase to the Colonials for them to check it to see how long ago it was made."

"I gave them a piece of it. For what they needed it, it is more than enough."

"Yeah, a piece of a broken vase. Don't you think it would have been better for relations if we gave them an _entire _artifact from our ancient times? I mean, you're the diplomat here, you tell me. What signals it sends when we are not even prepared to give them an entire vase? If I were Roslin, I would have thrown that piece back at you."

"She almost did, but for a different reason."

"Well, what's done is done. There's no going back now," Jack stated, noticing that they were standing in the hallway like idiots talking about very unimportant things. "Look, I have to go. I have a meeting with Teal'c in half an hour."

"Yeah, I have work too," Daniel replied and went back to his office. Giving a long look at it, he had to admit, it did look kinda cramped with stuff.

* * *

_**Please leave a review. They are always appreciated.**_


	32. The Vargas

_**Author's note: **Sorry for the delay and all. I was finally able to recuperate what I've lost because of my laptop suddenly deciding to crash instead of going into standby. And I like sooo much writing again what I already wrote that you wouldn't believe. Well, here comes the next chapter._

_**Guest reviews: **_

_**Guest: **I do need a lot of room to move before the third book starts. You'll see why in this chapter._

_**Awesome275: **Thanks. I'm glad you like the story so much. As far as the development speed of the Terrans, I can say that that was, and still is, the most difficult feat. It comes natural to lay it all out in a few chapters, but then you make the story less believable and you end up having less to write at a later point._

_**Thanks to my beta, and hope you'll like this chapter too.**_

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terrania**

Jack watched the usual watery splash of the gate from the control room. He turned and with a simple nod, instructed Walter to send the probe. The flying orb known as the MALP Mark II.

The probe descended from the ceiling, stopping at the gate's midlevel. It lingered there for a brief moment before speeding inside.

Jack moved in front of the large screen slightly to his left, waiting impatiently for the probe to begin sending telemetry from P4M-576, the recent victim of the Wraith retrovirus. There were more than five hundred thousand people living on the planet, which made this not the usual Wraith target. They had been infecting planets for some time now, but, before this one, those targeted were always planets with only a small population present, never more than a few tens of thousands of souls.

Which meant the Wraith were stepping up their game, and Jack realized it was the expected progression after they must have finally realized their previous tactic wasn't working anymore. He wished it wasn't that way though.

The screen suddenly came to life, pulling Jack from his thoughts back into reality. A quick glance at the screen was enough for him to know the gate was more than well defended. A quick count in his head gave at least a thousand of their ugly-looking warriors present on the ground, all waiting for nothing else than for some poor bastard to step through and get slaughtered. It was apparent the Wraith were putting a lot of effort in protecting the gate from any intruder who might be foolish enough to come through, no matter how well armed he'd be or in what numbers.

And why wouldn't they? With the highly ionized atmosphere of the planet, the gate was the only way to reach the surface. No beaming or drop-ships could safely pass through the atmosphere and land troops on the surface. And even if they somehow found the way, getting them out would be even more difficult. And Jack didn't like the idea of having his soldiers trapped on a godforsaken planet infested by the Wraith.

So, he needed another way to get boots on the ground. A safer way.

"What are your orders, sir?" Anderson, who was standing beside him, asked.

'_What indeed are my orders?'_ It was difficult for him to decide. He was hearing the words '_Your job is to protect Earth' _like a never ending mantra threatening to overwhelm him and prevent him from thinking about anything else. So, if his job was to protect Earth, why was he planning to send Terran soldiers into harm's way on a planet they had never been before and where they knew no one?

And then, the mantra stopped and, instead, he'd started hearing his _Inner Daniel_.

_We must help… bla bla… they are people like us and… bla bla… have the means… bla bla… can't refuse to… bla._

Okay, he wasn't always listening to every word his _Inner Daniel_ whispered to him, but he understood the gist of it. And he was mostly ready to agree with him, but still, it was very hard for him to send soldiers into a possible trap. If the virus had already run its course, they could be facing up to half a million Wraith on that planet, without any orbital support and with only the gate as a way of escape. Plus, if the virus had run its course, they wouldn't be able to help anyone either. It would already be too late. And in such case, the most logical course of action would be to hit the planet with a lot of cheap, but nonetheless very effective, thermonuclear devices and this way obliterate everything on the planet without risking the lives of even one single Terran soldier.

_And it would also serve as a good deterrent to prevent the Wraith from trying anything similar again._

And maybe if he repeated this in his mind enough times, he would even start believing it was the right thing to do. _Gah! Stupid brain!_

And then, the _Inner Daniel_ spoke again.

_Yeah right! Maybe you don't have _my_ ethical constraints, but you still do have _some_ of those. _

"Walter! Send the package," Jack said.

Walter turned, looking straight at him, uncertain, "Yes sir."

Jack watched as a long missile held by a mechanical arm was lowered from the ceiling and placed in front of the gate. With a sudden burst from its rear engine, the missile flew into the gate's event horizon, the same way as the probe had done only minutes earlier.

"Raise the shield," Jack instructed and watched as the gate's shield sprang to life, only moments before an EM wave coming from inside the gate hit it making it glow brightly for a few good seconds.

Meanwhile, Jack had watched the telemetry sent by the probe, showing the massive explosion for a brief moment before the screen went completely static. The EM wave was blocking the probe's telemetry from passing through the gate.

It took a while before the telemetry began coming through the gate again.

"Tactical nuke has cleared a mile radius around the gate, sir. In ten minutes the heat and other radiation will be low enough to allow our armored units to go through. Twenty minutes after that, it will be safe for our troops to follow," Walter said.

"Thank you Walter," Jack readily replied, turning to face Anderson. "Are your guys ready?"

"They are. I'm sending a full battalion of armored units first, and when the radiation lowers, I'm sending two more infantry battalions and two companies of engineers in order to build a defense perimeter, the encampment we'll need for a prolonged engagement, and to install an Iris on the gate so that we don't get unwanted guests from behind," Anderson answered.

"You think it will be enough troops?"

"For securing the gate, yes. Afterwards, I'll be sending a full division on the planet. I'm also thinking of using some of those Cylons to watch the defense perimeter. Just to see how they fare."

"All right. You know what's best," Jack replied. "Just don't take unnecessary risks with our soldiers there. And keep me apprised."

"Will do, Jack, don't worry."

Jack nodded, then turned and quickly walked out of the room. It was morning on the planet where they were about to send their soldiers, but it was 8 p.m. on Earth, and he still wasn't done for the day.

His walk took him through the vast complex that was the Terran Headquarter, then out into the open. The walk to his cabin - the one he had built on Terrania after the one in Minnesota had blown up - would take him another half hour. Ordinarily he'd have used a quick beaming, but knowing what was awaiting for him once there he opted for a half hour walk instead. A little walk would do him some good.

Some time alone, in order to clear his head.

The cabin was really nice, almost an exact replica of the one he once had in Minnesota, with the same porch looking at the same small pond only fifty feet in front of it. The only real difference here was that the pond had fish in it. Jack was certain people were at least once a week beaming new fish into the pond, because it was so small that it would be a real miracle if fish could prosper in it on their own.

Stepping on the porch, he immediately noticed a chair, a small refrigerator he knew was full of beer -or at least he hoped it was - next to it, and a big stack of paper on the low and small table in front of the chair. It was Walter's doing, he knew it. He had asked him to send him the papers to his cabin where he could look them over in peace. The rest though was purely Walter's idea. He hadn't asked for the cold beer, but he didn't mind either.

He would need the beer anyway.

It was the end of the year, and it was time to review what had and hadn't been done. What they had accomplished and what was in planning to be accomplished the next year.

Jack took one of the several bottles from the refrigerator, opened it and took a long sip. The beer's temperature was perfect. He then put the beer on the table, next to the stack of reports and other documents alike, and took the first one from the top.

The first page, in big letters, had '_INTELIGENCE REPORT, The Aschen'_, written in its cover. Jack immediately proceeded to take another long gulp of cold beer. He would need it before reading anything related to the Aschen.

It was Klaus who had finally compiled an extensive report on them, with insights into their mindset and motivations. And it had only been possible because, recently, they'd been able to capture an Aschen warship with very useful data in the ship's databanks and because they were able to interrogate a few officers they'd managed to capture.

The first chapter was entitled '_The History of the Aschen',_ which was something Jack really wanted to know about. To fully understand your enemy you needed to understand their past. You needed to know how they became what they were today.

Reading the content of the first chapter, Jack frowned in puzzlement. Apparently, two hundred and fifty years ago some revolutionary discovery had happened. Until then, the Aschen were an advanced human race, but nothing else was much different from any other race in the galaxy. At that point, they were still just ordinary humans.

Then, some scientists began believing there was a way to make them smarter by tweaking their genetic code. At this point, Jack had taken another sip from the bottle, thinking how he probably wasn't going to particularly like the rest of the story.

And he didn't.

The scientist had postulated that there was a way to increase their intelligence if they were to suppress the part of the brain responsible for emotions, the Limbic System, and enlarge the part responsible for logical thinking, the neocortex. After several years of research, the Aschen scientists were able to modify their genetic makeup so that the Limbic System was almost completely suppressed, with a predicted increase of 25% in the subject's intelligence on average, which meant an IQ of 125 would become the new norm. There was also a note explaining that the Aschen still possessed emotions, but they were so suppressed that with proper indoctrination during their early childhood, they would in the end completely disregard even the slightest of feelings they might still have. It was interesting for Jack to note that, while they already possessed technology from the Alterrans capable of increasing how much of their brain they were utilizing, the Aschen went in a different direction, increasing one portion of the brain at the expense of another to achieve the same result.

_They apparently went the wrong way._

It had taken another ten years for the new discovery to go through all the ethical dilemmas and debates on the possible repercussions of using such method for increasing their intelligence, and, in the end, their senate had decided to allow anyone who wanted to have children to go through the necessary procedure. And here was where everything had gone down a very slippery slope.

While at first only a small percentage had decided to do it, soon they all noticed the unfair advantages those children had in schools and later in life in finding high end jobs. In a matter of three generations those who didn't follow through with the procedure became the minority, and also thought of as outcasts. And that's how the Aschen race we know today had been born, with nobody on the planet ever wanting to go back.

A hundred years later, their trouble with overpopulation finally became apparent, with only one way to solve the problem. Find new real-estate.

Jack skipped the part where they had started taking other planets - he knew that part already. The next part explained their motivations for what they do and why they do it. This part he wanted to know in as much details as possible.

Their logic was simple. The Aschen are superior to all other races. For their race to prosper, they needed to be strong and united, and also needed to get rid of anyone who was, or who might become, a threat to them. And the part with the '_might become a threat'_ meant anybody who wasn't an Aschen. Their logic was simply to achieve their goal in the most efficient way with minimal losses to their side. The use of biological weapon to wipe out any possible opponent had been thought as the preferred method to achieve their goals, since direct confrontation, even when victorious, meant there would always be losses on their side too.

_Bastards!_

At this point, Jack wasn't so perplexed anymore about the nuke that had hit their planet. He took the bottle from the table, noticing it was empty. It was time for another beer.

Two beers later, and Jack was through the Aschen report, the Ori report with facts he mostly knew already on how their tyranny had ended, the Wraith report, uninteresting, bordering to boring, and then came time to read the Leptinian report. The race they knew the least about. The report was only two pages long, with no insight into their motivations and with the portion dedicated to the threat assessment being vague at best. He closed the report, tossed it to the far end of the table with too much force, ending up sliding and falling on the porch.

He would pick it up later.

The next report was the one he'd dreaded the most. The one summarizing all their engagements and the losses they'd sustained in the past year. He began reading, with the attack on Babylon One, done by the Gray Aliens, being the first on the list. They had lost fifty two soldiers who were under Lorne's command and thirteen civilians working on the station. Those had died when they'd tried to take down the Gray Aliens watching the Common Area. That day alone, sixty five Terrans had died, and it hadn't been a good day.

But there was more. There had been many skirmishes, mostly against the Ori followers in the Milky Way galaxy and the Wraith that had taken more Terran lives. The one sticking out the most was the Battle of Quiril, the one in which more than three hundred Terran soldiers had died while trying to free the planet from the Ori infestation. And such small losses had been possible only because the entire operation had been extremely well thought and executed. It could have been many times worse, but at the moment that was of little comfort to him, even less to the families of those who'd died there.

And the last and biggest defeat the Terrans had sustained in the past year had been against the Leptinians, an engagement in space in which they'd lost three ships with a full complement of sailors on board. Five hundred and twenty seven people had been lost that day.

In the year 2010, the Terrans had lost 1022 people, 2807 had been injured, from which 212 would never again return to active duty. It was more than any year before, and Jack hoped it would be more than any year after.

Except that he'd just sent a lot of Terran soldiers on a planet where there were possibly half a million angry Wraith ready to fight for every inch of the planet's surface. He needed to remind Anderson once again to not take _any_ unnecessary risks.

Well, it was time to take another report. And another beer.

Except for the defunct Ori and the Vanir, the Terrans still had to deal with the Wraith, the Aschen, the Leptinians and the impending doom from beyond the Anomaly located in the Andromeda Galaxy, known as the Vargas. The Wraith were an unknown. Jack had no clue what they would do if their plan of infecting humans with their retrovirus didn't work. Would they prepare their fleet to strike at other human worlds, or would they come up with some more cunning way to up their game, Jack really didn't know. And he didn't really like not knowing.

The Aschen were easier to understand. They were not that strong when it came down to shear number of ships and their raw power, which meant they would most certainly try to find some despicable way that didn't involve a direct confrontation, just as the TIA profile was suggesting they would. This in turn meant that only waiting to see what they would come up with next, wasn't a good idea. This meant it was time to end their reign of terror, before they could come up with something new. And the plan Liam and Sam had devised could be the answer to that particular problem.

It was time to clear the Milky Way galaxy of the various infestations, because if they didn't act now they could end up regretting it later. Or maybe they wouldn't _live long enough _to regret it, especially with the Vargas coming.

The Vargas. An enigma.

They didn't know anything about them expect that they were coming and that they were ruthless. If Liam's dream had been right, they were in for a fight of their lives. Jack could easily play in his mind the memory of when Liam had explained to him his dream, with thousands of Vargas ships engaging them near Eden Prime, and he could also remember how frightened Liam had sounded. He had never seen him so worried, before or since.

_Well, Liam did mention he had some more information about the Vargas. Maybe this will shed some light on their motivations and on how to stop them._

Jack took the last sip from his sixth beer. He then proceeded to belch with gusto, before looking at his watch. It was already past midnight and he didn't have any more beers. It was definitely time to go to sleep.

He stood up, slowly walking inside his cabin, on his way to the bedroom.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy - P4M-576**

Lieutenant Colonel Louis Basten watched the combat engineers work throughout the hastily erected base, all around the gate. The tactical nuke had done a great job of clearing the surrounding area and not only of the pesky enemy combatants waiting in front of the gate, but also of any growth like trees and bushes. Having cleared such growth was making the engineers' job much easier, which was a very good thing since the nuke had also made them vulnerable against attacks since at the moment there was nowhere to take cover if they needed to. Because of it, he had sent squads with railgun turrets and a Mark V Naquadah generator on all sides of the perimeter they were in the process of fortifying.

The generator was the latest hit in Terran power generation, the first powered with liquid Naquadah – which was much easier to replenish if the generator were to ran empty – and capable of delivering several times the amount of power than its predecessor, the Mark IV. The generator also came combined with twelve multipurpose field emitters powered by the generator through a built in high frequency subspace band system, this way resolving the problem of having to place cables leading power from the generator to the emitters. The newly developed multipurpose emitters were capable of creating a strong protective bubble or a cloaking field. In this particular case, six emitters would be used to create a protective bubble a hundred feet in diameter, enough to protect the squad standing inside it, while the other six emitters would be placed on the outside of the shielding perimeter and create a cloaking field, hiding them from sight. The shield wasn't strong, it couldn't be without a proper shield generator containing an energy buffer, but for the purpose of protecting soldiers against handheld weapons, it was more than adequate, and the ease and speed of placing the system was not a negligible bonus. Not when time was of the essence.

Those dozens of squads, spread around the perimeter, would serve as lookouts in case the Wraith decided to attack before the intended fence, meant to create a strong forcefield all around the encampment, could be put into place and activated. The four meters tall pylons needed to create the forcefield, needed to be placed at a hundred meters apart all around the perimeter, and the combat engineers were currently working on completing that particular task, the same as other engineers placing an iris on the gate in order to block any unwanted visitors from coming through. It wasn't easy though, especially since the gate was constantly being used to bring everything they would need to build their encampment or in order to bring more troops on the planet.

All in all, work was progressing at an acceptable pace, something colonel Basten was very happy to see. He would have preferred if they could have brought a stronger shield generator in order to cover the entire base, but an adequate generator couldn't fit through the gate, and there was no way of bringing it via ship, which meant he would have to do with a fence. The distinction was that if the Wrath had darts on the planet, the fence would not provide any kind of protection, and he didn't like it. Yes, they were building a large bunker for their headquarter, and once it was finished, darts would be the least of their problems, but it would take one more day to finish it, leaving a lot of time for the Wraith to mount an offensive with aerial elements.

"Sir, we have eyes in the sky," Major Reynolds reported to his CO.

Basten turned to the battalion's XO, nodding, "Good. Let's now see what the planet holds for us."

Both men walked back to where they had erected a temporary command, more specifically in front of the many monitors showing camera feeds from the drones circling above. Basten watched the various feeds trying to get a feeling of what was out there. From what he could tell at first glance, there were no cities or even towns in a twenty mile radius around their location. There were only a lot of trees.

"What about cities?" Basten asked.

"There are several smaller towns, with five to ten thousand people in them, and there is one large city twenty-three miles to the north. From the size of it, there could be up to 200.000 thousand people living in it."

"What about the Wraith?"

"We know of three locations where the Wraith are building some kind of organic infrastructure. We don't know what those structures are for, but I don't believe they are to build ships since they wouldn't be able to leave the planet. More than that, would be pure guessing on our part.

"There are Wraith canvasing the city, snatching people and bringing them to the closest of the three organic complexes. What for, we don't know, but what we do know is that those that have been taken are already turning into Wraith."

"So, how many Wraith are we talking about?"

"It is difficult to say. There could be many inside buildings that we are not seeing. We estimate there are around twenty and thirty thousand Wraith minimum. And we don't know at which rate humans are turning into more of them."

Basten absorbed the received information, thinking what to do. His battalion was here only to build a safe beachhead before the rest of the division came here. The problem was that, more time it took them to act, more people would be turned into Wraith. "I want scouts out in the woods. Even with eyes in the sky, we probably won't be able to see any Wraith approaching our camp, not with such a dense forest around us. Plus, I want those Cylons activated and placed around the perimeter."

"Do you want them placed inside the cloaked areas together with the rest of our sentinels?"

"No, I want them to patrol the perimeter. If there are Wraith out there, the Cylons could give them pause, especially if they are armed with only stun weapons. I would rather avoid a firefight at this point, at least until the forcefield is up and running. Maybe seeing the Cylons will scare them for long enough for us to finish our defenses. How is the placement of SAMs and railguns proceeding?"

"Slowly. With the priority given to the fence, only a small portion of our engineers are working on them. We should have adequate aerial protection in about eight hours."

"And how are HQ and the barracks coming up?"

"Twelve and fourteen hours respectively, sir."

"Merde!" Basten really didn't like it. "A lot can happen in eight hours, mon ami. Put the armored units on high alert. I want them ready to run the instant we know from which direction they are going to attack us. Bien?"

"Yes, sir, it sounds good."

"Well, there is not much we can do now, except wait and see what the Wraith will do," Basten said, more to himself than to his second in command.

* * *

**Andromeda Galaxy – Liam's Space Station**

Jack walked into a conference room on Liam's space station, the room already occupied by two other individuals. Liam and Thor were already there, currently having a heated discussion. He walked quickly and slumped into one of the chairs placed around the table. "What's up?"

Thor looked in Jack's direction. "I was telling Liam something you told me some time ago, but in order for you to understand why it is relevant, you must first let Liam explain the entire situation."

Jack wasn't sure if he understood what was going on, but he decided that Thor's remark was probably meant for that exact reason. He wouldn't understand. "Ok, I'm listening."

Liam took the cue and began explaining. "As you know, some time ago a Vargas ship entered the Andromeda galaxy through the anomaly and it smashed straight through our defenses before it disappeared. What you don't know is that there was another Vargas ship that remained in the Senari galaxy.

"During a routine check of one Senari planet that has joined the rebellion, one of our Seraphim battleships stumbled upon that second ship just in the process of bombarding the planet. Naturally, the captain immediately engaged the Vargas ship in order to prevent further bombardment of the planet.

"The battle wasn't easily won, and the battleship sustained massive damage, so much that it needed to be towed back into Andromeda by another ship, and there were many casualties aboard the ship. To tell you the truth, the battleship would have most certainly lost the battle if the captain wasn't able to inflict a lucky shot that disabled the Vargas ship's aft by blowing its engines.

"It appears that the Vargas ship's armor plating is very similar to that of my ship. The armor is incredibly difficult to destroy and able to dissipate massive amounts of energy before even micro-fractures begin to form."

"Wait, wait. Didn't you tell me that it is impractical to make ships with that type of armor because it takes decades to build them?" Jack asked.

"I did. You see, the idea behind making armor capable of dissipating energy is great, but the same process that allows the armor to achieve that, prevents any energy based method of creating that material from working. Most of our construction is done through matter converters using energy beaming. The needed raw materials are taken and the beaming system rearranges them into any molecular structure we need, this way creating whatever alloy we necessitate. That is true for most things we need to build, but when the alloy you need has the property of dissipating energy, you can't use such methods, the same as when you are trying to make some unstable molecule that can easily explode, or when you need to rearrange matter on a subatomic level that needs to trap those same particles in a certain quantum state inside a self-containing energy matrix.

"All this means that my ship's armor had to be created with some other construction method, and the used method was through a nanites-based assembly line. Since the armor is incredibly tough to make, such method of building a several million tons massive ship takes a lot of effort and time to build."

"Okay, I get it. So, the Vargas must have found a faster way to make this material."

"Maybe. I'm not sure about that. From some data we were able to recover, there is some indication they did in fact spend a lot of time building that ship, maybe not as much as mine since it appears the material is not as dense and yet it still has the same energy dispersion properties, but still much more time than we need to build our ships. The data is not complete so I can't be sure about the exact time it takes them to build a ship."

"That doesn't sound very efficient."

"It does not, but wait until you hear the rest before you pass judgment. I believe you will change your mind after Liam explains everything," Thor said, giving Liam a troubling look.

"Ok, I'm listening." There was no reason to push Thor to tell what was troubling him. He would find out soon enough.

"The Vargas ship, tough as it was, also had some very strange energy weapons. Analysis of the battleship's sensor data is still ongoing, but even now we know that the weapon is somehow able to have a cumulative negative effect on the shield's matrix it hits."

"What?" Jack asked, not getting anything Liam just said.

"Simply put, every time the weapon hits a shield it leaves _something_ that continues to drain it, which means the effect is cumulative with each consecutive shot taken. From how I understand it, the energy bolt created by their weapon has a core of dark energy that somehow bonds with the shield's matrix and it drains it over time. I'm still trying to understand how they were able to create a stable core of dark energy inside each fired bolt, and I'm not even sure I have enough data from the sensors to accomplish that."

"So, from what I gathered thus far… not good?"

"No, not good at all, but there's more," Liam continued his lengthy explanation of the events that had transpired and his conclusions. "Since the captain was unable to outright destroy the ship, no matter how much fire he poured into it, but nonetheless having at least been able to disable it, he decided to board it so they could destroy it from the inside before the Vargas could perform repairs. It looks the ship had very little in terms of crew on board – it was almost completely automated – but they did stumble upon one Vargas and they've also been able to bring his corpse back with them. It appears the Vargas are not a carbon based life-form." As he said those words, he activated a hologram showing a Vargas.

"Uh, ugly," Jack stated after seeing the image.

"They are a silicon based life form, and they have a… um… let's call it skin made of the same material as the hull of their ships, which means its capable of dissipating energy of any type we currently know of. It actually appears they use their skin to absorb part of that energy as a way to feed. They still have a digestive system in order to absorb matter they need in order to rebuild their body, but as far as energy they need to function goes, they use their skin to absorb it."

"Well, I'm not surprised about any of this at this point. We've seen some strange races before. This is just one more."

Liam was shaking his head at Jack's last remark, "No, what you see on the image is definitely not a race that evolved on its own. It is simply impossible. They had to be engineered to be like that. I don't know if, at some point during their evolution, _they_ did this to themselves, or if somebody else created or changed them, but they are unable to reproduce, at least not in what we would call a _natural_ way. In essence, they are more machines than living organisms. Granted, they are very sophisticated, and they are also able to actually grow, but they are not born, they are made."

"So, another machines-bent-on-domination situation, is that it?"

"Probably something like that, but what they are we still can't be certain with the little data we have, but it also isn't of immediate concern."

"Oh, this is gonna get much better, isn't it?" Jack growled sarcastically. He knew more bad news was coming.

"Except for the corpse, the teams that boarded the ship were also able to steal some data from one of their onboard terminals. And the data on it was in _Goa'uld_."

Jack blinked once, then once again. "I got nothing."

"Well, I have a theory. If it is the right one, is anyone's guess," Liam said.

"Ah, well, don't stop now. This is already… actually I don't know what this whole thing is building up to, but I'm sure I won't be disappointed."

"My theory is that this is not the first time the Vargas have come in our region of space. Try to picture _them_ having visited the Milky Way galaxy some twenty thousand years ago. We know the Vargas go around the universe, they find the most advanced race there is in a particular region, and implant them with the neural interface that turns them into their servants. But let's say that when they came to the Milky Way galaxy, the only intelligent race they found were humans, and they were a very primitive race, too primitive to turn them into their servants and have any use for them. Still, they knew humans had the potential to one day become a threat to them, so they needed to _monitor _them somehow. And what better way to do that than to use a parasitic race."

"Use how?"

"They used them by changing them, and I suspect they changed them because I think that no race _evolves_ on their own with the hindrance of having genetic memories. Genetic memories are more of a curse than something you want to have."

"What? You think the Vargas genetically modified the Goa'uld?"

"I do. Think about it. The phrase 'Sins of a father' takes a completely new meaning when a species has the ability of having genetic memories. Next generations will always be burdened by the memories of the parent, in this case a queen. Furthermore, since the queen is the only one that creates offspring, there's also no diversity, something a species definitely needs in order to evolve into an intelligent one."

"Okay, I'm still not sure I can wrap this around my mind, but the question still remains - for what purpose?"

"Don't you see? The Goa'uld became the perfect recording devices. They are a parasitic race, which means they inhabit a host and take all their memories, and then they pass those memories, or at least the memories they deem worthy, to the next generations so nothing of the parent's knowledge of any importance is ever lost. And such race would most definitely have the best chance to become the dominant species in the galaxy. But at the same time, they are also egomaniacs who will spend the rest of their lives battling other races _and_ each other for dominance, which means they would actually never become too powerful to threaten the Vargas directly. Plus they are pretty stupid, if we go right down to it. Everything they ever had was stolen from somebody else, which means that once they become the predominant species in the galaxy, they stagnate, with no or very little progress. Exactly what the Vargas would want from their advanced recording devices."

"It sounds possible. But I'm still not convinced."

"Okay, then think about this. Where did their language come from? None of us knows. Furthermore, shouldn't a parasitic race that gets all their knowledge from their hosts, choose an existing language from one of them rather than having created one of their own? We know the Goa'uld isn't a language created from any of their hosts, Humans or Unas, or even derived from any of them."

"So where did it come from?"

"It was implanted in their genetic code. They simply knew their language from even before they crawled out of their swamps. Another way to ensure that, once the Vargas return, they could access their knowledge."

"As theory goes, this is a weird one. Is there a way to prove this theory?" Jack asked. He was all for throwing theories, but some proof would be nice too.

"I think I can. I'll need to talk to the Tok'ra and make some experiments, but if I'm right, there will be a discontinuation in their genetic code, a sort of jump in their genetic evolution that can't be attributed to natural causes alone. Do you still have contacts with them?"

"No, not really. After we found and executed Ba'al, the Tok'ra went their way and we went ours. Not that relations were great before that either. I've always had the feeling they didn't really like how things have turned out in the end. Somehow, I think they always thought that the destruction of the System Lords would put them much higher on the galactic power scale. Plus the knowledge that they are a dying race, without their queen to make more of them, must make things even worse. As they are today, they have no future."

"Do you think they still have the remains of their queen? If there is somewhere where I can find any proof to this theory of mine, that would be in the genetic code of the oldest Goa'uld still in existence, and Egeria's are the oldest Goa'uld remains I know of."

"Well, I may be able to make a meeting happen," Jack said, not really looking forward to seeing the arrogant Tok'ra again. "But what was that about Thor saying something about _something_ I said to him."

Thor looked at O'Neill, "Do you remember when we went to visit Taldor, the people who sent you to the penal colony of Hadante?"

"I do remember, too vividly for my comfort."

"You told me that Doctor Jackson had some concern about how the time when our genetic disease began coincided very closely with the surfacing of the Goa'uld. At the time, I did not give it much importance because I could not find any connection between the two events, but if Liam's theory proves to be true, then I can see a connection. If the Vargas wanted the Goa'uld to strive, the one thing they needed to do was most certainly to weaken my people," Thor explained.

"Oh, this is going too fast for me. Is there a way to prove all this?"

"It would be difficult. It has been a very long time since, and any evidence have been long lost. Nonetheless, I _will_ try."

Jack saw the anger in Thor's eyes. If it was true the Vargas tampered with their genetic code through their cloning process, the Vargas would get a very pissed off new enemy to deal with. "Is that all, or there are more _planet_-shattering revelations I'll have to process today?"

"Only one," Liam said, quickly tapping on the console imbedded in the conference table. The view screen changed. "This."

Jack looked, having no idea what he was actually looking at. It looked very pretty though. "What's that?"

"This is the representation of a portion of the Vargas wormhole network retrieved from their ship," Liam said, waiting for Jack to absorb what he was seeing.

Jack scrutinized the image, not sure what he was seeing. It was definitely a representation of space, with galaxies displayed as small spirals with yellow dots inside many of them that probably symbolized where a wormhole or wormhole cluster was. And there were definitely lots of them, all spread everywhere, resembling what looked like a fractal pattern. "How many are there? And what region is this displaying?"

"These yellow dots create a web of wormholes or wormhole hubs like the one in the Senari galaxy in a fractal pattern that spreads throughout the _entire universe_. This is only a small portion of it. There are tens of millions of them, Jack."

Jack said nothing.

"And now you know why I said that maybe a decade to make their ship's hull is not as inefficient as someone would think."

"Why?"

"Because, Jack, to make a network of wormholes such as this, you'd need _billions _of years. A decade to make a ship suddenly doesn't sound like a lot of time, does it?"

"No, it doesn't. What are those red dots?" Jack asked still looking at the map in front of him.

"Not sure, but I would say those represent wormholes inside dangerous sectors. If the Vargas are spreading throughout the universe on such a scale, they were bound to stumble upon some pretty powerful aliens. Do you see the gray ones?"

"Yeah. What about them?"

"Those represent wormholes that have been disabled. I don't know if they were disabled by _them_ or by somebody else who's opposing them, but do you see how the spreading of the network has stopped near them. I think those are sectors where the Vargas have found strong opposition; somebody who was so powerful that they forced the Vargas to close their own wormholes or powerful enough to do it themselves."

"That's a good thing, right? Maybe we can find friends out there who don't like the Vargas, the same as we don't."

"I think it is, but as you can see, there are very few of those free regions compared to the rest. And that still doesn't mean they would necessarily be friendly towards us either."

"That's true, but still... the enemy of my enemy… you know how it goes."

"Let's _hope_," Liam replied with a sour smile.

"Indeed," Thor added. "It also explains why the Vargas rather enslave other races instead of simply destroying them. No matter how powerful they are, they cannot control such a vast area of space alone. Not with any hope of retaining it under their control for any long periods of time."

"Okay then. Let's clean up the nearby galaxies of the… um… nuisances we have here like the Aschen and the Wraith. They suddenly seem like a very small problem when compared to what I see here," Jack stated, definitely not liking what he was seeing. But one thing was certain, if they didn't clean up the various messes they currently had in their immediate neighborhood, there would be no chance of doing it later.

"Yes, and we should also work on finding a solution to their weapons, _before_ we activate the Echelon Project, because, I can tell you right now, that weapon of theirs scares me," Liam said.

"Why? I mean, yes it is dangerous, but your battleship was able to defeat them. I'm more preoccupied about their armor."

"That too, yes, but you must also take into account how useful their weapon becomes in large engagements. They could easily target some ships, and then target others and so on. Then, they could easily retreat or evade any engagement. Instead of our shields recuperating like theirs, all our ships would lose their shield strength while theirs recuperate. You should also take into account that the Vargas were probably unprepared to fight us this time. They knew they were going to face the Senari and not us, but we can't expect _that _to always be the case."

"Got it. Vargas weapon, not good in large engagements. Engagements like the one we know is coming, right?"

"Right."

* * *

_**Please leave a review. They're always appreciated.**_


	33. The Perfect Plan

**Milky Way Galaxy - Hyperspace**

Teal'c was very proud of his flagship.

From the moment he saw it for the first time, still in its construction yard, while being nothing more than an empty husk that still needed to be filled with everything, from reactors to toilets, he knew it would be a great ship.

As the construction had progressed, the majesty of the ship became more and more apparent, especially after the Terrans came with a treasure trove of stolen tech from one of the Aschen warships that could easily be integrated into the flagship's original designs, even in the final stages of its construction.

When the ship rose for the first time, with him as its commander, even then he knew he could go into battle against any foe, even against ships as powerful as the Ori ugly toilet-ships. The ship had six of the latest reactors, powering the endless rows of plasma cannons on its hull, its Aschen upgraded shields and sensors the Terran have stolen, and a newly developed hyperdrive system that gave the flagship unprecedented speed. This was the first Jaffa ship capable of breaching into the Theta band of hyperspace, allowing the ship to cut the travel time in half, compared to other Ha'taks currently in their arsenal - no matter which model - with ease.

And not only that. He was also proud of it because it was the first purely Jaffa designed ship of war, and not like the other Ha'taks that were only refurbished versions of a millennia's old Goa'uld design.

"Master Teal'c, we will reach the system in three minutes," one of the crew on the large bridge said.

Teal'c stopped his reverie, turning to look at the Jaffa who'd spoken, "Very well. I want all ships to activate their jamming systems the moment we exit hyperspace, and to continue further into the system as planned."

The plan was simple. Their task force, comprised of Teal'c's flagship, eight Ha'taks and two warships from the Galarans, Langarans and Optricans each, needed to reach the Aschen outpost, the same as other taskforces sent to other systems. And once there, their task was to keep whatever defensive Aschen force was present there at bay for as long as possible, while the Terrans dealt with their home world. The jamming system would serve to prevent the Aschen from receiving communications from home. Even though Teal'c was hoping the Aschen would be fooled in thinking the jamming was intended to prevent their ship-to-ship communications, he wasn't fooling himself into believing the Aschen wouldn't eventually understand the real reason or find a way to bypass the jamming. He only hoped it would give the Terrans some few precious minutes, enough to prevent the Ashen from reinforcing their home system. Teal'c's taskforce was directed to the closest outpost the Aschen had to their home system, and if the Aschen pushed their engines hard, they could reach home in less than fifteen minutes, and he needed to give the Terrans at least half an hour.

After the fleet burst into normal space, the Jaffa warships quickly formed a wall formation, with the flagship in the center, while the other races' ships went wide, preparing for their strafe runs at the Aschen defensive force. The idea was to keep the Jaffa warships at maximum weapons range where there was only a small chance of scoring any hits from both sides, while the strafe runs against the Aschen warship, would prevent them from closing the distance and keep near the planet if they didn't want for the outpost to be destroyed. The plan was to keep them tied to the planet, and not engage them with the intention of destroying them. There were more Aschen warships here than theirs anyway.

As the task force reached long weapons range, the exchange of fire began.

Now it was up to the Terrans to do their part of the mission.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy - Aschen Prime**

Admiral Jack O'Neill stood on the bridge of the Enterprise, watching intently at the screen in front of him that was showing an Aschen he'd never seen before. He didn't like it, he thought it was a simple exercise in futility, but he had to do it anyway. He had to give the Aschen a chance to surrender. Not that there was much hope of that ever happening, not until operation _Armadillo_ - for some unknown reason they had switched to names of weird animals for the operations' code names - had run its course and showed the Aschen the error of their ways. No, only then would the Aschen understand who they were facing, and - _logically! -_ come to the conclusion that surrender was the only avenue they could possibly take.

It was funny though. Normally, other humans would piss their pants when a massive fleet of Terran warships suddenly showed up in their home system, asking for their surrender or _else_, but the Aschen were not the usual human race. Somebody would even call them fearless, and they wouldn't be wrong, but Jack preferred the word sociopaths.

It was more fitting.

"…_with our defensive satellites active, there is no reason for us to surrender. If you attack us, your fleet will be destroyed,"_ the Aschen gave his point of view of the current situation.

"So, no surrender then?" Jack replied to the arrogant Aschen. Even after everything that had happened, the Aschen were still of the opinion that they were the superior one here.

"_No."_

"Okay then. It is your choice after all," Jack replied – he knew it would have gone like this – before nodding to the comm. officer to cut the connection. As the view screen switched to show space again, he continued. "Is everything ready?"

"It is, sir," Commander Philips, a member of his command staff, replied.

"Well then, let's commence with… um… operation _Armadillo_ then."

The officer nodded, immediately giving instructions to start the attack.

Before the conversation with the Aschen had even begun, two hundred cloaked long range missiles had been carefully placed inside the Aschen system and put on a straight and slow moving course toward Aschen Prime. And now, and with the receipt of the authorization code, the missiles were once again accelerating toward the planet and slowly but surely building up speed.

As all missiles reached high planetary orbit everywhere around the planet in perfect synchrony, barely inside the planetary magnetosphere, they activated their energy cancellation field generators. Suddenly, satellites near and far from the missiles began shutting down one by one, the same as all missiles' systems did, except for the most important one. Continuing on a purely ballistic trajectory, the missiles proceeded closer and closer to the planet's atmosphere and its surface below. As air density began to increase, the missiles began to heat, with the strong heat-dissipating material successfully protecting them.

Balls of fire plummeted deeper and deeper into the alien world's atmosphere, until they crushed on the surface, be it onto solid ground or by hitting water. Those that hit solid ground, burrowed deep into it, while those that hit water, began to sink. They all survived, and all had three micro-ZPMs pumping their energy into the cancellation field.

_21 minutes left until depletion. 0% satellite network destroyed._

All around the Aschen world, the power began winking out. Air-cars and transport ships, large and small, suddenly lost power, falling from the sky like lifeless rocks. On the ground, trains on magnetic rails lost their grip, derailing and crushing on the ground tens of meters below at tremendous speed.

A transport ship collided with a skyscraper in the middle of the large Aschen capital, the speed enough to break the massive building in half. Smoke was rising fast from several locations in the large city, everywhere an impact had occurred.

Mayhem was quickly to follow.

Inside an underground bunker – no matter how certain they were their satellites could protect them, the Aschen leadership still went there just to be sure – the Aschen leaders suddenly found themselves in complete and utter darkness. This scenario had never been envisioned by any projection their analysts had compiled. First, the satellites had begun shutting down all around the globe. Then reports of craft falling from the sky, as well, because they'd lost power. And now, their bunker had lost power too, the same as the rest of the planet.

In their minds, the leaders could not conceive of anything that could have done it, there was simply too much redundancy in their systems for such a global blackout, even if most of the power plants had somehow been sabotaged. But one thing they knew for certain. If power weren't restored soon, the bunker would become their tomb, one that would soon have very little oxygen to breath.

In the meantime, the Terrans were beginning their satellite cleanup operation. The large three kilometers long Colossus super carrier was launching vipers in the hundreds, from both the port and starboard massive hangar bays. For this specific mission, the ship had been filled with six hundred vipers and no other craft.

Squadrons of vipers pushed towards the currently shut down satellites with haste and determination, quickly entering weapons range and opening fire with their energy weapons while keeping their distance from the cancellation field. There was no opposition to their relentless fire.

It was almost too easy.

The fleet, comprised of one super carrier, three assault carriers, three Auroras, seven battleships, eighteen Daedalus class, and thirty one assault frigates, followed the fighters closely behind. The same as the fighters had done earlier, they entered weapons range of their own and opened fire from their energy weapons, be it plasma beams or repeaters, or kinetic weapons like railguns, with larger weapons targeting larger anti-capital ship satellites and with smaller weapons targeting the rest. There was a lot of firepower directed at the satellites - everything except missiles and drones, which would not work because of the field.

_Seventeen minutes left until depletion. 12% satellite network destroyed._

Jack watched from the CIC the systematic destruction of the satellite network on the south side of the planet. The display was also showing several Aschen warships having been caught by the energy cancellation field, tumbling through space powerless, some of them even on a direct course with the planet's atmosphere. It wasn't going to be a nice landing, he was sure of that much.

But not all warships had been caught in the field, and they were at the moment pushing hard towards the Terran fleet.

"How many?" Jack asked.

"Twenty-six warships, sir," the tactical officer replied.

"Detach taskforce 1.02 and 1.03. They are to engage the Aschen warships, standard assault formation," Jack said. He could have ordered the two task forces to form a protective Fortress Shield with the auroras' satellites, but it would limit their movement and maybe even allow the Aschen to circumvent them and reach the rest of the fleet currently in the process of destroying the satellites. And he could not afford for that to happen, not with so many practically defenseless fighters in space.

"Yes, sir," the comm. officer replied, immediately notifying the two taskforces of their new orders.

In space, two auroras and their escorts, comprised of two battleships, four Daedalus and eight assault frigates, began their movement, away from the rest of the fleet and on a straight intercept course with the twenty-six Aschen warships.

_Thirteen minutes left until depletion. 26% satellite network destroyed._

It was futile. It was better if they ran or surrendered. And yet, they didn't. The twenty-six Aschen warships were pushing hard, someone would even say desperately hard, to engage the Terran fleet in the process of destroying every last satellite the Aschen had spent so much time and effort to build as their last ditch defense of their home world. But there was no way they alone could face such a superior foe, and their predictions were telling them that, in less than fifteen minutes, the satellite network would be nothing more than a mass of floating debris. And yet, they at least needed to try. Their world was at stake.

The forward two Aschen warships simply vanished in a massive explosion as the two leading Auroras opened fire with all of their onboard heavy plasma beams.

Yep. It was definitely futile.

Or it would have been… if they were alone in the fight.

_Ten minutes left until depletion. 34% satellite network destroyed._

"Massive hyperspace window opening!" the sensors officer yelped.

Jack jerked, quickly turning in the direction of the voice he'd just heard. "Who is it?"

"Wraith! Seven… fifteen… twenty-three hives! Forty-six cruisers!" the sensor officer replied. "They are on an intercept course with Taskforce 1.02 and 1.03, sir."

"Oh for the love…" Jack threw both hands in the air. "New orders! Taskforce 1.02 and 1.03 are to take defensive formation Omega, targets of opportunity. And order them back here. Rest of the fleet, continue engaging the satellites, but be ready to leave. The Colossus and the assault carriers are to recall all fighters," Jack ordered, frustrated. The fighters were actually doing the most damage, picking up the smaller satellites with ease, and now he had to recall them prematurely. Jack watched the big screen showing a tactical overview of the battle. The two task forces were already regrouping into a much tighter formation, with the two Auroras spewing satellites as quickly as they could. Meanwhile the Aschen and now the front of the Wraith formation were already firing at them. "Time to Fortress Shield deployment?"

"One minutes, ten seconds." The tactical officer replied.

"Fighters?"

"Six minutes, sir."

"Not good." Many fighters were already on their final approach for landing, but more than half of them were still far out. Too far out. "Order those fighters that can't land in the next three minutes, to enter hyperspace to a point .4 light-years from here. Designate that point as Retrieval Point Alpha. I don't care where you put it."

"Yes, sir," the comm. officer replied, immediately asking the tactical officer for some random coordinates .4 light years away, and transmitting the new orders to the fighters.

"Sir, Wraith fleet is engaging taskforce 1.02 and 1.03. Fortress will be up in 20 seconds," the tactical officer notified the admiral.

_Five minutes left until depletion. 41% satellite network destroyed._

"Crap! Tell Pierce to abort!" He had completely forgotten about Pierce's mission.

"Too late sir. His ship is about to enter the cancellation field," the comm. officer replied after checking Pierce's position and current course and speed. There was no way he could veer off in time.

"Taskforce 1.02 and 1.03 have activated the Fortress Shield, but it is at 38% efficiency."

"Why so low?" Jack asked.

"Several satellites have been destroyed before the shield was formed."

The fortress shield could take a lot of beating, but less than half charged and against so many Wraith capital ships, it wouldn't last for very long. "They are to go to max speed and prepare to enter hyperspace." If nothing else, their ships were faster than the Wraith hives.

"Sir, the fighters are all tucked in."

"Good, good." Jack replied. The situation was chaotic, but it appeared they were able to react in time to the untimely arrival of the Wraith. "Comm., go fleet wide. The ships are to disengage, I repeat disengage, and to enter hyperspace at their earliest convenience. Destination, Retrieval Point Alpha."

_3 minutes left until depletion. 44% satellite network destroyed._

Pierce watched the console, showing their ETA against the cancellation field. Five more minutes and they would be inside it, and their cloak would stop working, the same as everything else on their small ship.

"Um… sir," the pilot began saying, making Pierce turn, "The fleet is in trouble."

"What kind of trouble?" Pierce asked.

"Twenty-three Hives and even more cruisers have just exited hyperspace."

"Oh, that kind of trouble. What is the fleet doing?"

"I think they are retreating, sir. Shouldn't we abort _our _mission as well?"

Pierce thought about it. It was true the parameters of the engagement have changed, and there was a good possibility that the mission should indeed be scrubbed, but surely, the fleet would have notified them if that were the case. Then he watched the chaos in space, and concluded there was a good chance Jack was very busy at the moment, probably not having time to contact them. Maybe he'd even forgotten all about them. And yet, the mission parameters were for them to keep radio silence during their entire approach. After all, it was a stealth insertion, and squawking their location to the entire system to hear, wasn't very stealthy. Then, he looked at their position and noticed that, even if they turned with all due haste, they'd still enter the cancellation field's perimeter, and probably on the wrong course and with possibly deadly consequences because of it.

"No, there is no point in changing anything, or in breaking radio silence at all."

"Yes, sir. Entering cancellation field in two minutes and twenty seconds."

The next minute and twenty seconds the twelve Terrans in the raptor had spent in silence, until their cloak failed, and all ship's system went down.

"We are on a purely ballistic course now, sir."

Pierce nodded, before looking at his watch. He had a purely mechanical watch, just for this mission. On it, the seconds were slowly passing, one after the other. If their calculation were wrong, they would reach the planet's atmosphere before the field fell… and they would melt like a candle. But, if everything had been calculated properly, the field _should_ go down just as they began skimming the upper layer of the atmosphere.

Pierce watched as the front of the raptor was beginning to burn.

_Any moment now._

As if by just willing it to happen, the systems on the raptor began to power again. The field was indeed down. At this point, he knew the missiles would use their remaining charge to detonate, and this way, leaving no trace they were ever on the planet. When it came to dangerous technologies, the Terrans were definitely on the paranoid side. Nothing they had would ever fall into the wrong hands.

"I have control again, sir. Cloaking raptor now," the pilot said.

"Very good," Pierce replied, thinking of what exactly the sudden appearance of the Wraith meant for their mission. As his tactical display reinitialized, he noticed their fleet was quickly retreating out of the engagement zone. Only seconds later, hyperspace windows opened, and ship after ship, they all disappeared from his tactical view. At the moment, there were Aschen warships, many Wraith warships, and a still shutdown satellite network in the process of coming back online. It appeared the Terrans had cleared almost the entire south side of the planet. Their predictions were all talking about succeeding in clearing around 75% of the satellite network, but it appeared that the sudden appearance of the Wraith had skewed the targeted percentage. As he continued watching the tactical display, he noticed the Wraith were already turning and speeding toward the Aschen warships, which were apparently fleeing to the north side of the planet. Pierce understood what they were trying to do. With the satellite network there still intact and the satellites beginning to come back online, they were trying to strengthen their defenses against this new and unexpected foe.

But what did that mean for the south side, and the people on the ground, he really didn't know. If the Aschen were to spread their satellites to cover the entire planet once again, there was a good chance it would become too weak against the Wraith, allowing them to pick up satellite after satellite until they were all gone.

As he had already anticipated, the satellites were not moving. They were staying on the north side of the planet.

And the Wraith were going for the south side.

Just as he and his squad were.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aschen Outpost**

The ruse had worked. The Aschen were pinned to the planet, staying above their outpost on the planet's surface. Teal'c couldn't be certain, but there was a good chance the jamming was still effective, and thus far, the Aschen haven't figured out the real reason for it. If they had, they would most certainly have left by now and went to protect their homeworld, leaving the outpost to fend for itself. After all, home planets tend to have precedence.

"Master Teal'c, the Galarans are not following the plan. Their strafe runs are going deeper and deeper, trying to score hits at the enemy formation," Teal'c's tactical officer informed him.

Teal'c had watched the situation develop on the tactical display from the beginning and he too had noticed the Galarans were slowly but surely losing patience. He knew the feeling. It wasn't easy to engage an enemy with the only purpose of keeping them pinned and without being able to score any meaningful hits. The range was so great that ships could easily evade the fire, which was the exact point of this mission. If the Aschen could evade weapons' fire, then the allied ships could as well. But the Galarans wanted to destroy the Aschen, and they were currently in the process of possibly making a critical mistake. "Hail the Galaran commander."

As the connection was quickly established, the main display switched to show the face of the Galaran commander. He didn't look happy. "Master Teal'c, this is not a good time. We are preparing to perform our next strafe run."

"I am aware," Teal'c replied. "And if you continue on this course, it will be the last you make. Desist from changing your course nearer to the Aschen formation. It is not our mission to destroy them, and you are putting your ships in grave peril by doing so."

"Master Teal'c," the commander replied with a condescending tone. "The Aschen are moving away from our trajectory every time we make a run at them. If we don't close the distance, we won't have any chance of scoring even a lucky hit."

"I am aware of it, but do you know the reason why the Aschen are changing position in such a way every time you attack them?"

"They are evading our attacks. What else there is to know?"

"No Commander, they are luring you closer in. They are luring you so you would make a mistake. If you don't change your course, the Aschen will instead of evading, push closer to the trajectory you are making, and your two ships will suddenly end in close weapons range of all fifteen Aschen warships."

From the image of the man Teal'c could literally sense the hamster turning in the man's head, trying to understand what was going on. It took him a while to reply. "Very well."

"Thank you commander, Teal'c out."

Once again, Teal'c watched the tactical representation of the battle on the display, noticing the two Galaran ships had slightly changed their intended path, enough for them to not go dangerously close to the Aschen formation. It was a good thing too because the Aschen, instead of evading the incoming assault the way they did the last few attempts, had pushed closer to the incoming Galaran ships. If they hadn't changed course, they would have ended up deep inside the Aschen weapons envelope. They would most certainly have sustained crippling blows as a result, if not being outright destroyed. Instead, only sporadic hits were able to connect with the ships' shields. The Galarans should feel very lucky. Inexperience can be a very dangerous thing.

"Master Teal'c, the Galaran Commander sends his thanks."

Teal'c was glad. The man was maybe inexperienced, but he was at least capable of admitting a mistake when it was due. There was still hope for the man.

"Master Teal'c," the same officer said with clear urgency in his voice, "the Aschen are breaking formation and leaving the planet's orbit. I'm detecting hyperspace windows opening. They are leaving."

"They must have broken through our jamming field and received news from their homeworld of the Terran attack."

"Master Teal'c, we are receiving a priority message from the Terrans."

"What does the message say?"

"Operation _Armadillo_ has failed. All units are to abort their mission, and regroup at Rendezvous point Gamma."

Teal'c's eyebrow rose. What could possibly have made the mission fail? He knew the entire plan the Terrans had come up with, and he knew of no way the Aschen could have prevented their complete defeat. And he also wasn't about to leave so soon, not now that the Aschen had left.

There was still an undefended Aschen outpost he needed to deal with before he would leave.

There was no reason to squander such an opportunity, even if the main objective hadn't been achieved.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aschen Prime **

The raptor had landed in the middle of a dense forest, far from any prying eyes. With the cloak as the only active system, and with the help of nature concealing it, there was very little chance of anyone spotting the landed bird.

Pierce's squad exited the raptor and proceeded north toward their intended target, only two miles away. The Aschen homeworld was riddled with stations, both serving as outposts and as their planetary network communication nodes, and one of those was Pierce's designated target.

Moving cautiously through the woods, constantly checking if there were any Aschen lurking around, the squad comprised of twelve members was slowly but surely nearing their target. Pierce was of the opinion that they would be able to reach the station without being noticed, mostly because he was certain the Aschen had other, more important, things to worry about than a possible incursion by a lone squad. He couldn't even imagine what a planet wide blackout had done to the Aschen, even one that had lasted for only twenty minutes. But, what he was certain was that the Aschen now had their hands full trying to achieve some level of normalcy once again.

The station the Terrans were particularly interested in had also been chosen for its seclusion. It wasn't a vital system, and it would most certainly not be a priority for the Aschen to restore it to full power. As far as Pierce knew, their main power grid was still down in this region, and he was certain it would last for at least another hour. After all, when large power plants suddenly go down, you can't just flip a switch to power them up again. It would take time and the process of restoring their power grid needed to be done sequentially, powering up important sectors first before others.

Pierce's squad finally reached their intended target, staying hidden only a hundred meters south of the station. "All right, the station still doesn't have main power, which is a good thing. The bad thing is that the station has two separate and autonomous generators, one on the west side, and one on the north side instead of one as we thought. Team 2, your task is to take the generator at the west side of the station, and you need to take down the generator without disabling it permanently. We will need it later. Once that generator is down, you'll stay there and keep an eye if any Aschen decides to go check it out once the power goes down.

"Team three, yours is the generator on the north side of the building. Destroy it after Team 2 disabled theirs. After you achieve your goal, try to find a back entrance – there must be one – and wait there for my signal. That will be your ingress point after Team 1 takes the station from the front.

"Is there any question?" Nobody said anything. "Good. Let's move out."

With Pierce's orders having been given Team 2 and Team 3 moved west of the building, quickly circling around. Fifteen minutes later, Pierce got confirmation the two teams had reached their intended target, and were ready to execute the shutdown of the two generators. Giving the order, Pierce waited, and then waited a few more seconds until his suit's sensors detected a drop in power throughout the station. The power was out. Now it was time for his team to do their job.

Moving quickly, the lead team approached the front entrance at the south side of the building. As they were only ten meters from the building, Pierce noticed the row of bulbs high on top of the entrance wall. Sensors readings he had previously made, told him those bulbs were energy weapons. Without taking the power down, they would have had to take those down before being able to enter inside the building. As it stood, they simply walked through the entrance without the defensive system having fired even once.

Inside the building, they found no opposition, which wasn't that strange at all. From information they had collected about the Aschen, they knew the Aschen preferred heavy automation in their buildings, and with the planet wide crisis, the few people that were stationed here were probably working on restoring the downed systems. Now, with the power having been cut once again, the situation must be even worse. Still, Pierce knew there should be at least some Aschen present, no matter how much they liked automated systems or how certain they were in the safety of their world against ground assaults.

Crossing the wide entrance hall, the lead team turned right into a hallway. As they made barely a few steps through it, an Aschen popped out at the other end. His puzzled expression was telling Pierce all he needed to know. His brain was trying to understand what exactly was going on here. Unfortunately, he wouldn't have the time to fully understand as a zat blast hit him, making him drop on the floor, convulsing in pain before falling unconscious.

Pierce reached the downed man, quickly looking around to see if there were more Aschen lurking around. There weren't. He then looked at the Aschen lying on the floor. He didn't know if this man was a scientist, a guard, or a janitor. The Aschen all wore gray for some reason, but what he did find was an access card. He took it, thinking that they would probably need it once the power was restored.

During the next fifteen minutes, Pierce's team and Team 3 had canvased the entire building. In that time, they had crossed paths with half a dozen more Aschen, but only one of them had a weapon and provided any opposition, futile as it was. Stupor and numerical inferiority were such that the only armed Aschen didn't have a chance to win the short engagement.

The station was theirs, and Team 1 was now in the station's communication room, the most important room in this place. Pierce had also ordered Team 2 to restart the surviving generator, and power had now been restored.

"Sir, access to their planetary network has been reestablished," a member of Pierce's team said, while working on the console in front of him.

"Good, then do your thing."

"Yes, sir," the man replied, promptly sticking a device in a slot on the console.

The image flickered a few times before returning to normal. But, what was happening inside the console was much more important than just the flicker.

… _Unpacking_

… _Initializing_

… _Eve is online_

… _Searching directives_

… _Multiply… Spread… Infect…Learn… Wait further instructions._

Eve smiled. Multiplying was the thing she did best, and this new environment would provide her with the ability to spread… to _everywhere._

And spread she would.

Gladly.

* * *

**Milky Way Galaxy – Aschen Prime's Orbit – Queen's Hive**

Todd walked purposefully toward the Queen's chambers. He needed to talk to her. The attack on the Aschen homeworld had gone well. Not perfectly, no, but at least acceptable enough. They had learned of the Terrans' impending strike at the Aschen and, although they didn't know how the Terrans were planning to take the Aschens' strong satellite network out, they simply couldn't pass this opportunity of putting a wrench in their plans and eventually turn it into a victory for them. And Todd's plan had worked great, for the most part. Maybe if they'd delayed ten more minutes it would have ended up even better, but even the current state in the Aschen system should be enough to assuage the queen and maybe even stop the many impossible requests she was recently asking of him. Yes, the north side of the planet was still protected by the satellite network and the Aschen had been bringing more and more ships that had previously been stationed to protect their various outposts in order to strengthen their home planet's defenses. But the south side of the planet was theirs and the Aschen could not hope to retake it, not if they were not prepared to thin the defense of the north side. And having access to half of the Aschen planet should be enough even for the uncompromising queen, or at least Todd hoped it would be. There was though one thing that he didn't like.

Todd made the last turn and stepped in front of the queen's chambers. As the doors opened, he quickly proceeded inside, stopping and kneeling only half a dozen feet in front of the queen. The queen was eating. Well, eating was probably too weak of a word for what she was doing, because it looked more like she was gorging herself with the Aschen they had captured and brought back on the ship. Todd also had the suspicion the queen wasn't completely satisfied with her opulent meal.

The Queen sucked the life out of another Aschen, at that point, having created a small pile of dead bodies in the middle of the chamber. It was the sixth Aschen she'd just finished eating.

The queen hissed, "What is wrong with these Aschen?"

Todd looked at the queen, "My Queen, do they not provide sustenance?" It looked that way if the number of bodies was of any indication.

"They… they do, but there's no _enjoyment_," the queen replied, tossing the last Aschen she devoured on the growing pile.

"My Queen?" Todd didn't know what she meant.

"There's… no fear, no anger in them. It is almost like they don't care they are being eaten!"

Todd understood. Getting their life wasn't all she wanted. She wanted to look in their eyes while she took their lives and see their fear, or at least anger. But the Aschen were different, Todd knew. They felt nothing, any emotions whatsoever and that didn't sit well with the queen. Still, food was food, and having found billions of humans as their new source of nourishment was enough for him. "My Queen, as I've already informed you, the Aschen do not feel emotions. No anger, no fear… nothing."

The Queen began pacing. She didn't like it. There was no pleasure in eating them, but she too knew what billions of humans under their control could mean for their food supply. They could expand their numbers a great deal without having to worry about shortage of food. They would once again become an unstoppable force even the Terrans and their allies couldn't hope to stop, no matter how powerful they were. "Do you have a plan to take the rest of the planet my child?"

"Unfortunately no, my Queen."

"Why not?"

"My Queen, the Terrans have destroyed only 44% of the Aschen defensive satellite network and the rest of it is currently being strengthened by more and more Aschen warships. If we attack the north side of the planet, we will lose most of our fleet, possibly even lose every ship we have." He didn't exactly say there was a chance they could lose, because the Queen wouldn't like to hear those exact words, but he did strongly imply it.

The Queen hissed. "Then, your plan has failed. We should have waited for longer, waited until the Terrans destroyed most of their defenses and only then jumped in system."

The queen was right of course. If they waited a few more minutes, it would probably have been better, but the problem was that it was impossible to know the exact moment that would give them the best outcome, not if they didn't want to give the Terrans forewarning of them coming, in which case the Terrans would most certainly have changed their tactic. Todd knew they couldn't have sent a scout to check the current state of the battle and then report back because the Terrans would have spotted it, and he was sure the queen knew that fact too, but that didn't mean the queen was going to be reasonable about it. And trying to explain something he knew the queen was already aware of wasn't going to help his case either. "I apologize, my Queen."

"And you should apologize," the queen said, still looking pissed, but much less than before. She was starting to calm down, which was a good thing. "So, what now?"

And here comes the part Todd dreaded the most, "My Queen, in my opinion… we should retreat."

"_Retreat!" _the queen hissed, "This planet is the largest feeding ground we ever found since the war with the Lanteans, and you want to leave it!"

"Yes, my Queen," Todd said fearfully. "It is true that this planet holds many humans, and it is also true that with this planet under our control we could greatly increase our numbers, maybe even by such amount that no one could ever hope of stopping us. But this planet also represents a trap for us, and we will not have the time we need to build our forces."

"Trap! This planet is not a trap. This planet is everything we need for victory against our enemies."

"I'm sorry, my Queen, but this planet _is_ a trap," Todd replied, knowing he was straying into dangerous territory. The queen was even under normal circumstance unpredictable. Telling her things she didn't like or disagreed with could be his undoing. "In order to keep the planet from the Aschen, we need to keep most, if not all, of our forces in orbit, and we still don't know how the Terrans and their allies will respond."

"The Aschen have lost half of their defenses in the Terrans attack, and if they try to retake the planet, they will be crushed. And the Terrans have fled like cowards. They will not risk their ships to free their enemies."

The queen was again trying to force the universe to be the way she wanted it to be. A universe in which her enemies would always do what she wanted. And she was definitely oversimplifying the situation. It was true the Aschen were not in the best of positions at the moment, but that didn't mean they were not even at this very moment planning a way to retake the planet, even if it meant losing most of their forces. And the Terrans did indeed flee the battle, but that was far from saying they were not going to return, or that they were cowards who were not ready to risk their ships. They'd been ambushed and it was only logical for them to retreat and regroup, maybe even spend some time to study the situation and only then come back, once they were ready. He didn't know the exact strength of the Terrans and their allies, but he was more than certain they could mount a massive counterstrike if they wanted to.

There was also another factor Todd didn't like. Even if it were true, the Aschen wouldn't try to take the planet back, and even if the Terrans were not ready to strike back, there was still the problem of having given the initiative to them, and Todd really didn't like being in a position when they could only react to others' actions. They would be the one who'd decide when and how to strike, and in the meantime, the Wraith could only wait and do nothing.

"My Queen, if we stay we are giving our enemies the initiative to strike when and how they want."

The queen was now really pissed. "Then it is your job to find a way to prevent that from happening."

Todd was clueless on how to respond, and unfortunately, he had also forgotten his _magic wand_ in the Pegasus galaxy so he could simply wish something to come true by waving it. And the even worse problem at this moment was that there was no reasoning with the queen, especially now that she was all pissed off. "Of course, my Queen, I shall endeavor to accomplish such feat."

The queen snapped her head, looking at Todd with apparent anger. Did she detect sarcasm in Todd's reply? It certainly felt that way. "You do that. Now leave me be, and send more of these Aschen to my chambers."

"Of course, my Queen," Todd replied, getting up and quickly retreating from the Queen's chambers. _Bitch._

Todd was strolling through the ship, with no clear destination in mind. He was pissed too. The queen was nothing more than a spoiled brat and he knew she could be the cause of the end of their race. When he went in the queen's chambers, he actually had another plan that could greatly increase their odds of survival. But if the queen hadn't been prepared to listen to his concerns about their current situation being nothing less than a death trap, he was even more certain she would not have listened to his suggestion of changing their race so they wouldn't need to feed on humans. The Terrans had worked hard on finding a sort of cure to their unique dependency on humans in order to survive, and it had been only logical for him to continue their research. And he was certain he was getting close to finding a serum capable of achieving exactly that. Without the need to feed, they could easily leave this horrible galaxy, infested by humans, and start anew somewhere else. They could spend decades growing in numbers somewhere where there were no humans before striking back. And they could even make peace with them and live their lives as they chose in a place far, far away. But he knew the queen wouldn't agree with it.

And this was making Todd think that it was time to enact plan B and if, as he was suspecting, Aschen Prime would soon become a massive battleground, he'd simply vanish in the fray. He already had many followers who didn't like the Queen and who would certainly have no qualm about leaving her. And to make his plan work, the only thing he needed to worry about was that the queen needed to go. She still had too much influence, telepathic and not, to leave her alive.

She simply needed to die.

* * *

_******Author's note**_

_******SGA: **I think there won't be any new chapter for at least two weeks. I haven't started writing the next one yet. _

_**STTC**: The spin-off will have a new chapter posted **next week**. _

_At least, that's the plan. They tend to change from time to time._

_**Please leave a review. They're always appreciated. **_


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